TULSA, Oklahoma (AP) – This summer it was Leonardo DiCaprio. Then it was green day. A small museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma dedicated to a classic film and directed by an entertainer draws big names in the Heartland.
The Outsiders House Museum was founded by Danny Boy O’Connor, who was formerly part of the hip-hop group House of Pain. It was an affair of the heart for O’Connor, who bought and renovated the house a few years ago.
The simple white bungalow with a wide veranda served as the central backdrop in the 1983 film “The Outsiders”, which was based on SE Hinton’s 1967 classic of the same name.
“That was our ‘Gone with the Wind’. That was our ‘American Graffiti’. Every generation finds the cool archetypes of who we could be, and that was the movie for me, ”O’Connor said in a recent interview at the house. He said the visitors were “8 to 80 – anything in between. Usually it’s the whole family. It’s a family museum. ”
Director Francis Ford Coppola directed the film in Tulsa with a young cast of future A-listers including C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise.
The museum also contains memorabilia from the movie set, including furniture, photos, posters, and the leather jacket of Dillon’s character Dallas Winston.
“The Outsiders” is set in Oklahoma in the 1960s and shows rival teen gangs: the Socs, short for Socials, and the Greasers. The house was the home of the Curtis brothers and a meeting place for their Greaser friends.
The building was in disrepair when O’Connor bought it in 2015 after visiting tenants and locating the owner. Before starting the project, he wasn’t sure what to do next after plowing through most of his savings.
Still, whenever he was touring the country or just traveling, he always drove straight to Oklahoma.
“That is phenomenal. And I mean that in the truest sense of the word. I didn’t know what I was doing. I saw a house from one of my favorite films, ”said O’Connor, 52.
He founded GoFundMe to raise funds for repairs and restorations.
“Tulsans helped me,” he said. “The people in the film helped me. Okies helped me. “
DiCaprio, who was in northeast Oklahoma on the set of Killers of the Flower Moon, showed up at the Outsiders House during business hours and toured in July. He has since been photographed at other museums in the area, including the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
“He said that every time he makes a movie he tries to see a museum,” said O’Connor, adding that the actor read once for a TV version of “The Outsiders.”
Soon other actors from “Killers of the Flower Moon” stopped by.
Green Day, in Tulsa for a surprise show at Cain’s Ballroom, also called and asked for a visit. “They came through and were fans too,” said O’Connor, noting that frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has ties to Oklahoma – his mom is from Sooner State.
Other visitors included Hinton.
O’Connor shares photos of celebrity visits on social media.
Now O’Connor is preparing to show a 4K Blu-ray edition of the film, which will be part of a weekend event from September 25-26. A plaque in Tulsa’s Circle Cinema is dedicated to notes from O’Connor, Tulsa’s Mayor GT Bynum, and Californian librarian Jo Ellen Misakian, among others.
Misakian, many say, was the impetus for the Hinton novel to be made into a film. She sent Coppola a letter signed by over 300 students stating that the book was a cult among teenagers.
“The series of miracles that had to happen in order for him to get the letters is incredible,” said O’Connor.
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WHEN YOU GO …
The Outsiders House Museum is located at 731 N. St. Louis Ave. in Tulsa. It is open on weekends from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Entry is $ 10; private tours $ 25. www.theoutsidershouse.com
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