10 Things You Didn't Know About The Movie "Animal House"

Animal House may be a little dated to some (it was released in 1978), but I still think it is a hilarious, classic comedy film. It pushed the boundaries and set the stage for more recent comedies like "Van Wilder" and "Old School." It may have even influenced your own college experience (see #3). Here are some things you didn't know about the movie.

1. Co-writer Chris Miller based the National Lampoon short stories that gave rise to the film on his experiences in the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity at Dartmouth (from which he graduated in 1962).

2. The movie was set to be filmed at the University of Missouri until the president of the school read the script and refused permission. It was filmed at and around the University of Oregon in Eugene instead. The President of the University of Oregon only allowed this movie to be filmed on that campus because he decided he did not know how to read screenplays. In 1967 he had received the screenplay for a movie but had denied it permission to film there. That movie was The Graduate and he liked that movie so much that he decided he didn't want to miss another opportunity, so he allowed Animal House to be filmed on the University of Oregon campus. But he insisted that the college's name not be listed in the film's credits.

3. Virtually unheard of, "Toga Parties" became all the rage in colleges all over America after the release of this film.

4. The full name of the Delta House changes during the movie. When the movers are taking out the contents of the frat house the name is Delta Tau Chi. Earlier in the movie it is Delta Chi Tau.

5. To prepare for their roles, the actors playing the Deltas went to a real frat party at the University of Oregon's SAE house (except John Belushi, who was working on Saturday Night Live that night). The real fraternity members did not like the actors being there and a brawl ensued. When Belushi returned to the set and heard about the fight, he had to be physically restrained from seeking revenge.

6. All of John Belushi's behavior in the cafeteria was improvised. He was not told to pile all the food on his tray and when he did director John Landis urged the camera operator to "stay with him." The infamous "zit scene" was also improvised. The reaction from the cast is genuine.

7. DeWayne Jessie's performance as "Otis Day" was so successful that he legally changed his name to Otis Day, and toured and recorded with 'Otis Day and the Knights'. The toga party band's real name is Carl Holmes and The Commanders.

8. According to Landis, Universal Pictures president Ned Tanen protested the scene in which the Deltas take a road trip to an African-American bar by stopping a screening of the film. He ordered the scene to be removed and claimed that the scene would cause race riots in the theaters. Landis then screened the movie for Richard Pryor who wrote a note to Tanen that read: "Ned, Animal House is fucking funny and white people are crazy - Richard."

9. The bottle of whiskey that Bluto (John Belushi) chugs was actually colored tea. This was part of keeping John Belushi away from alcohol and drugs. Belushi was also excluded from the rest of the cast staying at Roadway Inn days prior to the shoot.

10. The hole John Belushi makes in the wall with the guitar is the only physical damage to the house the movie-makers made during the entire shoot. Instead of repairing it, the fraternity placed a frame around the hole with an engraved brass tag around the hole commemorating it.