Page 6 - May 23

Minnesota and I like the casual hum of the heartland.”
Here is where to explore that hum you might hear after landing at Tulsa Riverside Airport (KRVS), William R Pogue Municipal Airport (KOWP) or Tulsa International Airport (KTUL).
The Outsiders House Museum
O’Connor never forgot the connection he made when he went to see the new Coppola movie “The Outsiders” in 1983. Not much of a reader, the 13-year-old had no idea it was based on a novel and didn’t know the plot.
“I walked in the theater with no expectations and I left a changed kid,” the now 54-year-old 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.”
Written by high schooler Susan Eloise Hinton using an initialized byline of S.E. Hinton, the 1967 book explores tension between the working class greasers and the affluent socs (pronounced soashes, as in social) through the eyes of 14-year-old narrator Ponyboy Curtis. While the
4 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
book does not mention Tulsa, the author has called it realistic fiction based on her experience at the city’s Will Rogers High School. She 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.
Though set in the mid-1960s, the topics of social acceptance, family issues and teen angst still resonate with adolescent readers: the book has sold more than 15 million copies around the world and remains on many school reading lists.
For O’Connor, it was the topics that spoke to him, from family struggles to feeling like an outsider after moving from New York to California at age 6, and stuck with him well into his career as Danny Boy in the 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 the supergroup 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
“The Outsiders” was written
by Tulsa teenager Susie Hinton in 1967 and published in 1968. Director Francis Ford Coppola filmed his adaptation in Tulsa
in 1982, releasing the movie with the same title nationally in March 1983. This house was one of several filming sites and has been restored and opened as The Outsiders House Museum.
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 realized he was not alone in connecting with the story when a photo he took of the house and posted on social media went viral.
In 2016, he bought the house for $15,000 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. O’Connor raised money to restore it and opened it as The Outsiders House Museum in August 2019.
Bringing the museum to life became a community project and his passion. He engaged locals, fans across the globe, stars of the movie and connections he’d made through the entertainment industry to get the museum completed. 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.
›
MAY 2023