Inside ‘The Outsiders’: Tulsa museum preserves movie site, legacy of classic novel
The house looks like it needs a paint job, the furniture on the porch is rusted, the chain-link fence surrounding the corner lot dips in one spot.
Inside, a metal pencil sharpener is mounted on the window frame next to the desk in Ponyboy Curtis’ bedroom. Sodapop Curtis’ green towel hangs in the bathroom. A black rotary phone sits by Darrel “Darry” Curtis’ favorite chair in the living room.
Fans of S.E. Hinton’s novel “The Outsiders,” which has sold 15 million copies and remains on many school reading lists, will recognize the distinctive names of the Curtis brothers. Told through the point of view of 14-year-old Ponyboy, the storyline focuses on the tension between the working class greasers and the affluent socs (pronounced soashes, as in social). Though set in the mid-1960s, when the book was first published, the topics of social acceptance, family issues and teen angst still resonate with adolescent readers.
Those who have watched the 1983 film adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola will likely envision actor C. Thomas Howell sitting at the desk writing the opening lines of Ponyboy’s English paper, Rob Lowe wrapped only in that towel as Sodapop prepares for a day of work at the DX service station and Patrick Swayze filling the role of father figure in a house where the siblings and their friends gather and bond.
This one-story bungalow at 731 N. St. Louis Avenue just north and east of downtown Tulsa, was saved from destruction in 2016, restored to how it appeared when Coppola turned the Crutchfield neighborhood into a movie set for filming in 1982 and opened as The Outsiders House Museum in August 2019.
The museum has attracted fans of all ages from around the world, from folks who first read the book while in middle school to those who experienced “The Outsiders” as a movie. In addition to early career roles for Howell, Lowe and Swayze, the relatively unknown but soon to be famous cast included Tom Cruise before “Risky Business,” Ralph Macchio before “The Karate Kid,” Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane.
Those who aren’t familiar with “The Outsiders” can still enjoy the museum’s impressive memorabilia collection, the behind-the-scenes stories related to the book and the movie shared by staff and the story of Danny O’Connor, the superfan and hip-hop artist who led the effort to save the house.
“Anytime I meet somebody who tells me they’ve never read the book or seen the movie, I tell them they are the ideal visitor to the museum,” said O’Connor, who relocated to Tulsa from Los Angeles to lead the project and become the museum’s executive director. “You’re going to learn about the wonders of ‘The Outsiders,’ how important it is to not only the literary world but to the psyche of America, and you’re going to realize the pop culture icons the movie spawned.”
The book
While the book does not mention Tulsa, the author calls “The Outsiders” realistic fiction based on her experience at the city’s Will Rogers High School. Susan Eloise Hinton was 15 years old when she started writing it and has said she didn’t write for publication, but out of frustration with the social situation at the school as well as the unrelatable literature available for her age group.
Despite getting a D in her creative writing class, Hinton enjoyed writing for fun and poured her frustrations into crafting the type of story she’d like to read. A friend’s mother read Hinton’s draft and sent it to an agent she knew.
Hinton signed the contract for the book the day she graduated from high school, in 1966 at age 17, and “The Outsiders” was published in 1967.
A 50th anniversary edition of the “The Outsiders” was published in 2017 with materials from the publisher’s archives, including letters between Hinton and the agent about using initials instead of her first name to deemphasize her gender. While the book was written from the perspective of a male character, the publisher worried reviewers and male readers might be influenced by knowing the author was female.
Book sales took off once teachers and librarians realized their young readers connected with the content, despite some reviewers and schools challenging the appropriateness of the plot’s violence, family dysfunction, language, smoking and drinking.
Viking Press marketed the book as “about teenagers, for teenagers, by a teenager,” and Hinton’s books have been credited with reshaping juvenile or young adult fiction (she subsequently published “That Was Then, This is Now” in 1971, “Rumble Fish” in 1975 and “Tex” in 1979).
Fifty-four years after it was first published, “The Outsiders” continues to be part of the curriculum at middle schools and high schools.
“The response to the book has been overwhelming,” she wrote in a published note from the author in 2017’s anniversary edition of book. “I receive letters from every state, from dozens of foreign countries. From ten-year-olds to seventy-year-olds.”
Hinton, who goes by Susie, has said she enjoyed the privacy that S.E. afforded her throughout her career. She still lives in Tulsa and has mostly kept a private life, aside from an active Twitter account (@se4realhinton) with nearly 60,000 followers.
The movie
While Hinton did not write the screenplay for the film adaptation of “The Outsiders,” she was a location scout in her hometown and was on the set during filming, calling herself a “den mother” for the actors who played the greasers. (She also appears in a cameo as a nurse.)
Coppola said the movie was made and he was involved because of Hinton’s passionate fans. In the 50th anniversary edition of the “The Outsiders” book, he shares that he read the book only after receiving a petition in March 1980 signed by 110 eighth graders at a California school asking him to turn the book into a movie.
Coppola, 43 years old during filming, was coming off an Oscar-winning decade directing “The Godfather” films and “Apocalypse Now,” among others. After reading the book, he agreed with the students.
Filming took place in spring 1982 at multiple sites in Tulsa. The movie’s performance when it was released in March 1983 was considered moderately successful. Devoted fans felt too many important parts of the book ended up on the cutting room floor, as did some of the movie’s actors.
“When Francis Ford Coppola and the studio chopped up S.E. Hinton’s novel, which was originally shot word for word, scene for scene, it was bittersweet,” Lowe wrote in the stars’ notes section of the commemorative edition of the book. “When that first version of ‘The Outsiders’ was released in 1983 I knew we’d made a much better one.”
Coppola explains in his note in that same book that 20 years later, when asked to show the film to his 17-year-old granddaughter’s class, he showed the original version that has 22 minutes of additional scenes. The film played well so he asked Warner Bros. to release that version, which they did in 2005 as a DVD titled “The Outsiders: The Complete Novel.”
The museum
A 13-year-old O’Connor was invited to see “The Outsiders” by a friend in 1983. Not much of a reader, he’d never heard of the book.
“I walked in the theater with no expectations and I left a changed kid,” he said. “Even though the movie had a 1950s or 1960s vibe, I related to the characters in ways I’d never related to characters on the TV or movie screen before.”
The movie spoke to him, from family struggles to feeling like an outsider after moving from New York to California at age 6, and it stayed with him through the years.
In the 1990s, he was Danny Boy in the hip-hop trio House of Pain, best known for the 1992 hit “Jump Around.” He’s referred to that decade as a downward spiral of alcohol and drug addiction. In 2009, sober for about four years, he was in Tulsa on tour with La Coka Nostra. He had taken an interest in photography to keep him busy when he had a few extra days on the road between gigs. As he thought of places to photograph in Tulsa, he recalled that one of his favorite movies had been filmed there.
Not finding much information online about “The Outsiders” filming sites, he paid a cab driver to help him find a few, including the Curtis brothers’ house. He drove by the house every time he was in town, about once a year. Each time, the house looked in worse condition and Habitat for Humanity – which was tearing down homes to rebuild – was getting closer to what O’Connor deemed an unrecognized pop culture landmark.
In 2016, he bought the house for $15,000 from out-of-state owners even though he hadn’t stepped inside. Once inside, he realized restoring the house to how it looked in the 1983 film was going to require a complete gutting.
As he worked with community partners on the restoration work, he began amassing memorabilia related to “The Outsiders” and Hinton. He engaged locals, fans across the globe, stars of the movie and connections he’d made through the entertainment industry. Through Twitter, he connected with Hinton, who has provided her endorsement of the project, as well as supported the museum through donations of items, money and taking part in fundraisers.
O’Connor said bringing the museum to life became a community project. Businesses donated some of the necessary services and materials, Habitat for Humanity constructed a gift shop building on the lot that also provides additional exhibition space and relics started to come in from many sources.
Among the extensive memorabilia collection: screen worn clothing of the main characters, rare books, unpublished candid photography taken during filming and other unique items such as Coppola’s director’s chair from the set, signed production notes and scripts.
The three-year project opened in August 2019, though O’Connor says it’ll never be finished as he continues to add pieces. Areas that were shown extensively on screen have period furnishings and faux wall treatments to match the condition of the house in the movie: the front porch, the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom and one bedroom. There are fun details in these rooms, from Lowe’s autograph and the words “Stay Gold!”—one of the signature lines from the book and movie—on the green bath towel to a chocolate cake and bottles of Budweiser props in the vintage refrigerator.
I recognized these iconic elements of the story only because I’d rewatched the movie for the first time in 30-something years the night before I visited the museum. While I wasn’t a superfan of “The Outsiders” before my tour, I enjoyed the trip back to my teens and learning the extraordinary stories of Hinton and O’Connor. Without either, this gem of a museum would not exist in our region.
How to visit
▪ Watch The Outsiders House Museum’s Facebook page for the next open house date. After being closed to tours most of 2020, they added these less structured events late in the year. They’ve increased to two weekends a month this spring and O’Connor said he’ll add more dates if there’s demand. Generally, Open House hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and admission is a $10 donation per person at the door. When he’s not touring, you’ll often meet O’Connor at these events.
▪ Rent the house for a private screening of “The Outsiders.” An employee will provide popcorn and water and they’ll roll out a 70-inch TV and start a DVD copy of the movie. During the three hours you have access to the house, you can also explore memorabilia displays and shop in the store. The cost is a $100 donation per person with a minimum of a $500 donation and a maximum of 10 people. The couch seats two and you can bring your own folding chairs or sit on the floor with a chocolate cake like greaser Two-Bit Matthews played by Emilio Estevez.
▪ Eventually, O’Connor hopes to return to regularly scheduled programming. That would include movies on the lawn and guided tours of the house that start with a bus tour to other filming sites in the area. Watch social media and theoutsidershouse.com for the latest.