Outsiders Museum Saves Another Piece Of Film History

The Outsiders House Museum is working to preserve a piece of Oklahoma film history.

Danny Boy O'Connor runs the museum, a project that started when he bought the house where parts of the movie were filmed. Since then, he hasn't stopped collecting anything related to the movie or the book. His most recent find is a fire escape that was attached to a building in Sapulpa. It was featured in Rumble Fish, a follow-up movie to The Outsiders.

"It's significant in that way and it's very cinematic because Coppola uses the lighting to cast a shadow of an old fire escape,” said O’Connor.

He says the old fire escape kept getting hit by trucks and was twisted and mangled, so the owner of the building let him have it.

"I've watched too many of these things sit around as argument pieces and then end up in the dump anyway, so I'm glad we got there when we did," said O’Connor.

Saving the fire escape is only a small part of a larger effort to preserve film history. In Sperry, one man is working to revive buildings that were featured in The Outsiders like an old DX gas station.

Gary Coulson wants to make it look just like it did in the movie.

"We're going to reenact that movie site here," said Coulson.

He is the president of Upward Sperry, a non-profit that takes on projects like this to revitalize the town. He also helped Danny remove the fire escape in Sapulpa.

"We took down a piece of history, basically," Coulson said.

Danny O'Connor says he has plans to have the mangled fire escape fixed and to create a second museum to house it and plenty of other outsiders memorabilia.

"It's an incredible collection that needs to be seen, I don't want to see it sit in storage for nobody to enjoy but me," O’Connor said.