* The original release date in the USA was March 25, 1983 and the movie brought in approximately $25,600,000 at the box office during its theatrical run.
* The letter jacket that the "soc" is wearing as he challenges Darrel is the letter jacket from the High School that author S.E. Hinton attended.
* The reason why the 'sides of town' were changed for the film from 'East and West' to 'North and South' is this according to author S.E. Hinton..."..."North Side and South Side were in the book orginially, the publishers wanted to change it as north vs south side is still a rivalary so Francis changed it back."
* The graffiti on the wall in the scene where Dallas calls Darrel to tell him the cops are searching for him says "Johnny". This can be seen especailly well on the widescreen version of the DVD.
* A very young Sofia Coppola, credited as 'Domino', portrays the girl harrassing Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, and Ralph Macchio at the country Dairy Queen for some money.
* The 'employees' at the Drive-in were actual employees of the Admiral Drive-in Theater. "Employees" in the concession stand scene were General Cinema employees Damon Fell, his wife, Cindy, and Tom Essley; Mr. Essley either being the Drive-In manager at that time or soon to be the manager of the drive-in.
* The park in the Outsiders was 'Crutchfield Park' located at 1345 E. Independence St. **Thank you to Mike over at Tulsa TV Memories for passing along my inquiries for information on locations used in the movie**
Photos and information of the Admiral Twin Drive-In provided to the website by Tina Ervin-Platt, webmaster of the
*Tom Cruise, in his desire to develop the character of 'Steve Randall' as in his opinion he is not very well defined in the book, devised that somehow Steve chipped a tooth. Since he is very poor he could never afford to have it fixed. Instead he is proud of it . . . it makes him look tough. He was able to work with a dentist and a make up artist to make the effect. Also, on Tom Cruise and his character of 'Steve', Tom gained almost 20 lbs to play this character and he did it by drinking McDonald's milkshakes!
* The scene in the movie where Patrick Swayze's character 'Darrel' does a little gymnastics stunt as they head for the rumble- the stunt was actually one written into Hinton's book, and Patrick's own gymnastics background made him a natural to do his own stunt. He also coached Tom Cruise enough to where he did his own stunt off of the truck as well. Emilio, Rob and Tom Howell were also 'in training', but didn't get it down quite good enough by time to shoot that scene. (Patrick attended San Jacinto College on a gymnastics' scholarship.) *Thank you to the 'Perfectly Patrick'fan club for this little tidbit of info!)
* In a recent interview, Ralph Macchio recalls being told he was "too Long Island" by Coppola. Though crushed, he realized this fact so in order to 'get into the character' of 'Johnny' he didn't shower for a few days and rubbed dirt on himself before shooting scenes.
* To create the sense of 'family' between Patrick Swaye, Rob Lowe, and Tom Howell, Coppola had them all living in the house together that they used to film in. Swayze recalls, "...we each had our responsibilities, and we'd argue like brothers. Sometimes it would get a little too real..." (GQ Magazine Article, March 2003)
* Tom Cruise teased C. Thomas Howell incessantly about being in a film called "E.T." and then when the movie was released in the summer of 1982, after seeing it with family, he called to apologize for his belittling words. As we all know, "E.T." went on to become one of the biggest blockbusters of all time..
* During the rumble scene, locals were used as 'extras'. Swayze recalls things getting "...a little too real, one guy coldcocked me square in the face. so I knocked him out. I really didn't mean to hit him that hard..."
Nominations and Awards for the Film:
* In 1984 C. Thomas Howell was nominated for and won the Young Artist Award for 'Best Young Motion Picture Actor in a Feature Film' for "The Outsiders" (1983)
* Did you know that the 'prop' newspaper that was used in the movie has been found on Ebay? Several have been seen (and bought for some pretty high prices!) over the last couple of years. The co-moderator of the website and fan club has it- she has told me "..it's much thinner than it appears in the movie." Perhaps they wrapped it around another newspaper to make it look 'thick'????
* The same person who was living in the "Curtis" house during the shoot (he moved for a few months) still lives there! (This from an email from S.E. Hinton and see pics of the house then & now below)
* With a little digital wizardry, the projection booth seems to sit on top of the concession stand in the film! Read on for a statement from .one of the union projectionists (passed on to me by Tina Platt of the Admiral Drive-In):
"At the Admiral Twin, the projection booth actually is located on ground level in a separate building. For the "Outsiders" Mr. Coppola had a false stand built on top of the concession stand, and inside that false booth was a gentleman waving something in front of glowing light, to give the "flickering" impression that the film makes coming from a booth porthole.
There were several off-duty Tulsa Police officers working as security for the filming. It was a threatening evening (Tulsa, particularly, has rather unpredictable weather changes) and apparently one of the off-duty officers got word that a strong set of winds was headed for the drive-in. This officer, knowing how (at that time, pre-reliable radar tracking, especially) these storms can quickly turn into a tornado ran into the middle of the filming, screaming that the storm was coming right for the set and everyone needed to take cover.
Mr. Coppola was not pleased, and apparently was beginning to read the officer the riot act for running into the shot, when the wind storm did hit: it blew the false walls of the false projection booth apart! Needless to say, it all turned out for the best and everyone was OK."(see picture above of the concession stands) Thank you Tina for passing that story along!!!
* This information is also from Tina at the Admiral Drive-In:
"The gentleman behind the counter is Bill Lenski, he was a manager for the Drive-In but at that time had recently been promoted and moved to a different theater."
* The Tastee-Freez that played a part in the movie was located on the NorthEast corner of Main and 86th Street North in Tulsa. Unfortunately the building is no longer standing.
**Thank you to Mike over at Tulsa TV Memories for passing along my inquiries for information on locations used in the movie**
If you have tid-bits, info, or pics to share feel free to email us at theoutsidersofficialwebsite@theoutsidersbookandmovie.com . All contributors are credited and all photos contributed are copy protected. Thank you very much for visiting The Outsiders website!!
