TULSA, Oklahoma, Sept. 21 (U.S.): This summer, it was Leonardo DiCaprio. Then it was green day. A small museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, dedicated to a classic film directed by an artist, who paints the big names in Heartland.
The Outsiders House Museum was created by Danny Boy O’Connor, formerly of the hip-hop group House of Pain. It was a labor of love for O’Connor, who purchased the house several years ago and has restored it.
The unassuming white bungalow with a spacious front porch was used as a centerpiece in the 1983 film “The Outsiders,” which was based on the 1967 SE Hinton classic of the same name, the AP reports.
“This was ‘Gone with the Wind.’ That was ‘American graffiti.'” O’Connor said in a recent indoor interview, ‘Every generation finds great archetypes of who we can be, and that to me was the movie.’ Ranging from 8′ to 80′ – to everything in between. Usually the whole family. It is a family museum.”
Director Francis Ford Coppola filmed 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 houses memorabilia from the film collection, including furniture, photos, posters, and the leather jacket worn by Dillon’s character, Dallas Winston.
Set in 1960s Oklahoma, “The Outsiders” features rival teen gangs: Socs, short for Socials, and Greasers. The house was the home of the Curtis brothers and a resting place for their friends Grecier.
The building was in poor condition when O’Connor bought it back in 2015 after visiting tenants and tracking down the owner. Before he embarked on the project, he was not sure what to do next, having spent most of his savings.
However, when he’s touring the country or just traveling, he’s always headed straight to Oklahoma.
“This is exceptional. And I mean it in the truest sense of the word. I didn’t know what I was doing. I saw a house from one of my favorite movies,” O’Connor, 52, said.
GoFundMe has started to raise money for repairs and restorations.
He said, “The Tulsan helped me.” “People from the movie helped me. Okies helped me.”
DiCaprio, who was in Northeast Oklahoma filming “Killers of the Flower Moon,” showed up to Outsiders House during office hours and toured in July. It has since been photographed in other museums in the area, including the National Monument and the Oklahoma City Museum.
“He said any time he shoots a movie, he tries to see a museum,” O’Connor said, adding that the actor once read for a TV version of “The Outsiders.”
Soon, other actors from “Killers of the Flower Moon” also stopped by.
Green Day, in Tulsa for a surprise show at Cain’s Ballroom, he was also called and told to stop. “They came in and were fans too,” O’Connor said, noting that standoff player Billy Joe Armstrong has ties to Oklahoma — his mother is from Urgent State.
RAE