Lynne Hatheway (Anthony) played the small role of "Sandy", Sodapop's girlfriend.  If you've read the book then hopefully you will remember her being mentioned on a few occasions.

MEMORIES FROM

“THE OUTSIDERS”

          It all started in the spring of 1982.  I was a senior at Memorial High School at the time.  There were several boys in my class that were in the movie as extras.  We had some boys that played the Socs and some that played the Greasers in the movie.  One good friend of ours, Tony Cornetto, was in the movie as a Greaser.  He invited a couple of my friends, Becky Price and Susan Cleaver, and me to come out to where they were shooting the movie.  Since we were high school girls, of course we said “yes”.  We wanted to meet Matt Dillon. 

         The night we went to the location where they were shooting was the evening that the big rumble scene close to the end of the movie was being shot.  Our friend, Tony, introduced us first to C. Thomas Howell.  He played Ponyboy and at that time was unknown.  We also met Rob Lowe who was an unknown too.  Then, we met the famous guys, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, and Tom Cruise.  Tom Cruise was not as famous at Matt and Ralph but we did know his name.  I remember that I shook his hand not knowing who he was going to become in the movies.  He had a broken hand at the time.  That was the only time that I saw him.  After that night, he was done filming.  All the guys were very nice to us and seemed just like ordinary kids our age.  They were all around our age except for Ralph Macchio.  He was 21 years old at the time, but he looked 13 or so.  I remember him complaining about all the little girls (around 13) liking him so much.   He would say, “If they only knew how old I was.”  We watched them film a few more times; then the movie was a wrap.

         Shortly after graduation, a friend of mine, Becky Price, told me that she had heard that applications were being taken for extras in S.E. Hinton’s next movie, Rumblefish.  Becky was very interested in theatre and was going to go to USC in the fall.   She asked me if I wanted to go with her and fill out an application too; so I did.  We got there and we filled out all the paperwork and had our picture taken.  As I was handing in my application, the lady at the desk asked me if I had heard about them filming The Outsiders.  I said “yes”, of course.  She then told me that they were going to add a few more scenes to the movie and they wanted to do this before they started shooting Rumblefish.  She said they were adding the part of “Sandy”, Sodapop’s girlfriend.  She wanted to know if I was interested.  And, I was interested.  She said that I would need to interview with the movie’s producer, Fred Roos, and the casting director, Janet Hirshenson.  In a few days, I received a call from Janet and we set up a time for an interview.  I showed up for my interview very nervous.  I remember waiting out in the hall with another girl.  She asked me what kind of acting experience I had, which of course was none.  I got even more nervous because she was telling me her experience.  Then, I thought, what am I doing here?  I had my interview and all went well.  Time went by then I received a phone call from Janet saying that I was the new “Sandy”.

          Meanwhile, we had become friends with these guys in the movie.  So, I had a feeling that maybe they were pulling for me.  My friends and I showed them around Tulsa and took them to all the spots that we would hang out with our friends.  I remember taking them to Peppers restaurant at 61st and Sheridan.  When I was in school, Peppers was the place to see and be seen.  If you wanted to find someone, they were usually there.  So, we wanted to be seen with these movie stars.  One night we took Tom Howell, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio and Emilio Estevez to eat at Peppers. The waitress was a girl we went to school with.  We didn’t tell her who these guys were, just their names.  She never recognized them.  That’s the way it was everywhere we took them.  We also took them to the Caravan at 41st and Memorial to dance.  That place was always crowded and we always knew someone there.  The same thing happened; no one knew who they were.  The Fourth of July came around, and they invited us to their cast party for the holiday.  We picked them up at their hotel, which is the Doubletree downtown now.  The cast party was at some apartments by the Arkansas River.  Some of the employees of the studio were staying at these apartments while they were filming the movies.  We took the guys down to the river to see the fireworks.  They thought they were great!  Again, we had another opportunity for someone to see us out with them, but no luck.  We never took pictures with them because they would talk about crazy fans and what they do; so we didn’t want to be one of those crazy fans.  I think they actually thought of us as friends and appreciated how we treated them.

          Time came for my turn to do some acting.  I went to my location which was a little gas station on north Denver across from The Salvation Army shelter.  In fact, all of the movie’s trailers were set up in The Salvation Army parking lot.  I had to be there at 7:30 in the morning and first went to wardrobe.  It seemed like it took them a long time to find something for me to wear.  Maybe it just seemed that way because I was a little nervous.  But, they found an appropriate outfit for a Greaser girl.  After that, I went on to make-up.  Those people were very nice too.  I started feeling a little more comfortable by that time.  It was really fun to have somebody fix my make-up and hair.  I didn’t much like the way they fixed my hair.  I’ll just say it wasn’t an 80’s style, but not too bad.  I was ready to shoot my scene with Rob Lowe.

         The scene was at the gas station were Sodapop worked.  His girlfriend Sandy was there visiting him.  Meanwhile, a car of Socs drives up and starts giving Sodapop a hard time.  Sodapop and the Socs have words and then they drive off.  It was funny because Rob Lowe kind of slapped one of the boy’s beer bottles in the scene and accidentally hit him in the mouth.  It chipped his tooth.  I can’t remember who that boy was, but I guess he will never forget it.  Some of the Socs in the car were boys that went to my school.  It was nice to have someone there that I knew.  My part wasn’t much.  I was to stand there with Sodapop, kiss him and look like we were boyfriend and girlfriend.  Kiss him!  Well, of course, I will.  I remember Rob saying, “No, really kiss me”.  I had never kissed anyone on film before and I guess he wanted to make sure I did it right.  It took a while to film this little scene.  It was very interesting to see how they actually film a scene and use so many different cameras and different angles.  They also took still photos of Rob and me.  One photo is from the scene itself and the other one is a posed picture of us.  They even took a picture of me by myself.  They sent me copies of these pictures soon after they finished the movie.  I am so thankful for these photos since I never took any pictures of these guys. 

         When the gas station scene was over, we went across the street to The Salvation Army parking lot and ate lunch.  I felt a little awkward and out of place but everyone was very kind and courteous.  I remember seeing Diane Lane and Patrick Swayze but never actually met them.  I had heard of Diane Lane at the time, but I didn’t know Patrick Swayze.  After lunch, we changed locations to Rogers High School to shoot a scene of the Socs and Greasers at school.  They had a lot of extras there and again I saw a few more people that I knew from school.  There were a couple of girls there that I knew pretty well.  Their names are Julie and Nancy Utter.    They were sisters.  I also went to OSU with them and we were in the same sorority.  It was great to see familiar faces.  My wardrobe was changed, I got my hair and make-up retouched, then we waited.  We waited for a long time for our scene.  But, by the end of the day they decided not to shoot it. 

         My last scene was a night scene.  After wardrobe, hair and make-up, I again waited for my scene.  They also gave me a dressing room trailer which had been Matt Dillon’s.  That was exciting.  While I was waiting, I watched them film a couple of scenes that are shown close to the end of the movie.  One scene was when “Dallas”, Matt Dillon, was dying.  In the movie it is not a funny scene, but it was funny to see it being filmed.  It just looks so dramatic and fake in person.  It’s very different to see a scene while it is being filmed and then see it in the movie after it’s been edited and music has been added to it.  It was getting close to sunrise and Rob and I were to film our last scene.  Sodapop has pulled up to his house in Sandy’s car.  Sandy is driving because her family can afford a car a little bit more than Soda’s family.  They are saying goodbye to each other and discussing why they can’t see each other that evening.   Sodapop gets out of the car and Sandy looks very disappointed.  She drives off.  We did this scene several times.  The hardest part about this scene for me was driving this older car.  But, I got through it.  When we were done, Francis Ford Coppola, the director, said “that’s a wrap”.  That was it for The Outsiders; there were no more scenes to film.  I remember Francis Ford Coppola saying goodbye to me.  He gave me a kiss on the cheek and told me that I did a great job.  I was very flattered.  When I was saying goodbye to Rob, I asked him if he didn’t mind giving me his autograph.  He wrote, “I love you, Sandy.  Rob Lowe  Soda.”

         This was a great experience for me as a teenager fresh out of high school.  However, I decided that actors have crazy hours and that wasn’t for me.  I also said goodbye to Tom Howell.  We became pretty good friends too.  He gave me his home telephone number and asked me to call him sometime.  Sometime went by, and I had never called Tom.  I felt kind of funny about it, so I didn’t.  My roommate in my sorority house at OSU encouraged me to call him one evening.  So, I did.  It was weird because his mom answered the phone.   We talked a couple of times and he asked me if I was going to go to the movie premier.  The premier was going to be held in Tulsa.  I made arrangements to come home and go to the premier.  It was held at the Williams Forum Cinema.  I was excited but also nervous to see if my part had made the movie.  Wouldn’t you know it, but my part of Sandy had been cut.  I was disappointed but it was okay because I will always remember this experience forever.   After the, movie I went to the post reception party at a restaurant in Brookside.  Tom Howell and I became reacquainted and we visited and danced.  I also met Patrick Swayze at the reception.  I was glad that I got to meet him since I didn’t have the opportunity before.  I knew that I was never going to see these people again, so I asked them if they would sign their autograph for me.  I not only have 3 still photos and 3 autographs (Rob Lowe, Tom Howell and Patrick Swayze) to remember these guys, but I also have a lot memories. 

         After the wrap of The Outsiders, my friends and I met a few guys that were going to star in the upcoming movie, Rumblefish. Their names were Vincent Spano and Nicholas Coppola.  We had never heard of these guys either.  Vince told us that he had starred in a movie called The Return of the Black Stallion.  I never saw the movie, but I think it was a Francis Ford Coppola film.  Nicholas was Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew who is now known as Nicholas Cage.  These guys were very funny and were great to be around.  Of course, they didn’t know anybody in town so we took them to all our regular hangouts.  Again, nobody recognized them.  One favorite memory that I have with these guys, is taking them to the Interurban restaurant downtown. We ate dinner and had a good time.  I will never forget Nicholas standing up at our table and saying some line from a movie at the top of his voice.  Everyone noticed him and it was very funny, but I don’t think most of the patrons thought that it was.  Of course, no one knew he was the nephew of the famous Francis Ford Coppola or that one day he would win an Oscar.  However, my most fond memory of the two of them is when they came over to my parents’ house and swam in our swimming pool.  Again, we had no idea that Nicholas would be so famous and an Academy Award winning actor.  Remember my friend Becky Price who was going to USC in the fall?  Well, Nicholas gave her his telephone number in Los Angeles and asked her to call him.  She felt the same way I did and didn’t want to bother him.  She did run into him at a movie theatre and he remembered her.  He then offered to show her around L.A. and he did.

         Being in The Outsiders was one of the greatest experiences in my life.  I learned very quickly that these actors are just regular people, just like us.  They do the same things that we do, but they also need their privacy.  Everyone that we met from The Outsiders and Rumblefish really liked Tulsa.  They loved the rolling hills, the trees and the green grass.  The thing they commented on the most was our sunset.  Our sunset was the most beautiful sunset that they had ever seen.   

         I am now married to a wonderful, wonderful man named Scott that I met at Oklahoma State University.  We started dating the following summer in 1983.  We have been together ever since and we were married in 1986.  We have two beautiful boys together, Ryan (13) and Kyle (10).  I am so thankful for all of these blessings in my life!