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Author, columnist, managing editor of LibertyNation.com, podcast host and conservative policy advocate. Dismiss history at our peril. Liberty Nation with Mark Angelides. Dana Lash's Absurd Truth Podcast, sponsored by Keltech. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of the United States.
Always hedging. You know, because in the back of our minds, we weren't raised with the certainty of maleness that, you know, kind of the confidence that young men in their 30s have, which they haven't earned, they just have it. And we don't start feeling that and owning that until our 50s and 60s at a time when we start to.
Now be Treated as invisible in society. What is she talking about? Who the hell sits down and is like, I'm going to devote an hour of my life to the Michelle Obama podcast? Everybody's got a podcast these days. Gemini Christmas.
Welcome back to the show. That's uh what what what is this phrase? What did she say?
Sorry, certainty of maleness. What does that even mean? But I live in mean? We weren't raised with the certainty of maleness. Like, what is uncertain about it?
I think they mean fatherless homes maybe? No, that sounds smart. Certainty of maleness would be a father in the home, right? I mean, that's what you would think, but that's probably not what they're talking about because that sounds intelligent. Oh.
Who pays her to do this? Who's like I wanna I wanna have somebody who's actually like Mm-hmm. Not even mid-opera. Sit here and just run about the certainty of maleness. Like, what is the audience for this?
Who sits and listens to that? It's She just It's her delivery. Her words aren't any different from Kamala Harris's. It's just her delivery. Her delivery is better.
And so it makes you think for a minute: wait a minute, maybe it's not word salad. Nope, it is. It is, it's word salad. It's like the uh Southern Baptist preacher speaking technique. You know.
By the way, you can't get mad me. I was very selling about this. Where you, you know, you are dramatic. And you can say, you know, you deliver things like that. It sounds authoritative and like you really know what you're talking about and very important.
And you could just be reading, you know, craft mac and cheese box, and it's, you know, sounds like really impressive. I just, yeah, I'm pretty sure we were raised with, I mean, if you weren't raised with the certainty of maleness, then you were brainwashed. Abusively so. If you had no concept of the certainty of maleness, What is that I don't even understand what these words mean, that she when she strings them together like this. Like you didn't know that men existed, or you did, but you still questioned it?
That sounds like a you problem. That's not a societal problem. That sounds like a you being confused problem. You being raised wrong, problem. That's what it sounds like.
I I don't know. She ha is this her own podcast, or is she a guest on someone else's? I think it's hers. It's hers. Yeah, it's the IMO.
IMO, which means, in my opinion, I think. Right. But also I'm Michelle Obama. Oh my gosh. That's so bad.
Oh, that's right. Yeah. You know that they thought that they probably focus grouped it then. Oh, the. That We weren't raised with a certainty of maleness.
Yeah, we pretty much were. Why is there all of this questioning over it? I mean, it's science. Why are there all these questions? Also, how are they so certain they're against toxic masculinity or masculinity in general if they can't also admit there is and be certain?
I don't believe in toxic masculinity, but I absolutely believe in toxic femininity. It's the third and fourth wave matriarchal society. I mean, I'm gonna tell you gents, nobody dislikes them bitches more than, you know... The chicks who are not that, okay? Like, nobody dislikes them more.
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This is Carrie Champion, the host of Naked Sports. When you sit behind the wheel, Of the all-new 2025 Nissan Armada Pro 4X, you'll feel like the entire world is your playground, and you'd be right. Because this unshakable fortress of a vehicle is built to take you on your next adventure. With a twin-turbo V6 engine, the all-new Armada is powerful enough to take you anywhere. With its 8,500 pounds of toying capacity, it will let you bring all your toys along.
I was seating for eight. Your whole crew can join you. Nissan created a truly capable vehicle in the all-new Armada. In fact, it's the first Armada to earn the Pro4X badge, which Nissan reserves for its most adventure-ready vehicles. The Armada is a big SUV designed and built for big adventures, and must be experienced to be appreciated.
Drive the all new twenty twenty five Nissan Armada today. Learn more at NissanUSA dot com. Intelligent four wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions. You know, if you can find the joy in the small moment, life will always be that much more fun.
That's what Hello's Oral and Personal Care products are all about. They take the mundane of every day and inject it with some everyday yay. Take Hello's anti-plaque and whitening fluoride-free toothpaste, for instance. It will brighten your routine and delight your senses with a formula that's equal parts, fresh, friendly, and has plaque-biting power. Or see the difference that a whitening toothpaste powered by vitamin C can do for your smile with Hello's Vitamin C whitening fluoride toothpaste.
with thoughtful and fun products that can make brushing your teeth feel like a confetti-filled bathroom dance party.
So say hello to happy, to making the most of every moment. Say hello to a vegan, cruelty-free, and never-tested-on-animals toothpaste. And say so long to dyes, parabens, artificial sweeteners and flavors, and other things you can do without. Visit helloproducts.com and let Hello add some everyday yay into your life. Everybody heard the Texas story, right?
Oh boy.
So in Texas. You got John Cornyn, who's a senator. Not a lot of people like John Cornyn because he's been there for a long time. And typically when you tend to be in a place for a long time, when you tend to be there for as long as he's been there, You kind of don't. His record is kind of haunting him a little bit, a little bit, a lot of it.
He's, you know, he's a lot of people think he's a rhino.
Some people think he's ineffective.
Some people think he's an effective rhino. I mean, he's got baggage, right?
So it doesn't help. And uh he's but he's been running I mean, I don't even know how long. He's been in office for forever. He's been running on a post essentially in the Senate for some time.
Well, until now.
So you have the Attorney General of the State of Texas, Ken Paxton, who has filed to run in the primary to challenge Cornyn. And he's been so far, he's put up a good challenge. The White House hasn't waded in yet. In it. And Cornyn was meeting with POTUS apparently earlier this week, according to Punch Bowl News.
Paxton's already tight with POTUS because remember, Ken Paxton was up there in New York when Trump was going through that New York witch hunt, which was a really stupid trial, by the way. That was the dumbest case ever. I can't even believe it was prosecuted, but here we are, it's New York. And he was out there. Remember, he was in the background.
Like, he was a part of the hype squad that went out there. And all of this, you know, yes, I'm sure he believed in the rule of law and that it was being subverted in that case, but I also think that he was looking out for: well, I'm going to be running against John Cornyn at some point.
So I want to make sure that I get that coveted Trump endorsement.
So. He's challenged John Cornyn, and it's already been. I mean, it's barely started and it's already so nasty.
Well, then yesterday it got nastier. Dun dun dun. In days of our Texas Republican politics. This could, I mean, you're talking about a senator who could be working with all of you.
So his wife, Ken Paxton's wife, Angela Paxton, by the way, did they ever respond to you? No, not yet. I mean, it's been a day. They're not going to come. I'm not going to grill him.
I mean, I like what Packerson's done. Um, But I'm not an idiot. You know, I like what he's done. But I know that there's a lot of people talking about a lot of issues with him. Anyway, his wife came out and said.
Basically, according to all the documents that have been reviewed and publicly reported on, that he committed adultery. I don't know if he committed adultery again past the 2018 affair that he had. And he came out and talked about it in the press, and apparently, I guess they got over it and their marriage continued. But she filed for divorce yesterday, and that was one of the that was cited in the documents that were made public. Was she was basically she's accusing him of infidelity.
So I don't know if it's if it's based on that 2018. I I Affair, or if it's like something new. That's one thing that wasn't made clear. But It's already You can imagine how that's fitting into a nasty Republican primary.
So here's the question. And I don't mean. I'm not trying to diminish anything. I just want to get right to the point of the issue. Does it matter?
Nobody wants to talk about this on the Republican side of things. Doesn't matter. Does marital infidelity matter in elections? Is it meaning do you think it's an effective weapon i is it is it effective when it's weaponized against someone? The answer to that question is yes.
It is effective when weaponized. It is effective when weaponized. But I don't think it matters very much.
Now there is an argument to be made that, hey, if he's going to do this to His wife, he might do this to the state of Texas or the country or whatever. I don't buy into that necessarily so much.
So I don't look at this. As something that may automatically kill his chances to become senator, but I think it is an effective. weaponization. I don't know if it is an effective weaponization. I've seen it happen.
I don't know if it's mattered since Bill Clinton.
Well, I take that back. It kind of, no, no, I don't take it back. It hasn't mattered since Bill Clinton. And you can bring up John Edwards, but John Edwards, if you remember, didn't get in trouble because he had an affair. John Edwards got in trouble because of how badly he tried to cover it up.
When John Edwards screwed around on his wife, with that Ryle Hunter. He paid his campaign surrogate to To pretend that he was the one having the affair. And then when she had the love child. He basically had he paid this guy off to claim that baby as his own. And I mean, that guy was married and had to deal with that in his own marriage.
And he was using campaign contributions to cover it. And then there was that rich heiress, Bonnie, Bunny Mellon, whose money he was taking to pay for all of it.
So he got in trouble for a campaign for like all kinds of fraudulent spending and all of this. That's why he got in trouble. And the cover-up is usually always worse than a crime for the most part in instances like this. And so they weren't mad at him because he had an affair. They got mad at him because he was using Bunny Mellon's money to pay off people in his campaign to pretend that they were the ones having the affair and that his love child was actually theirs.
If you remember, they got caught on that CCTV footage at a hotel that somebody sold to the National Enquirer. National Inquirer actually got to report some journalism, and nobody else would touch the story, and they reported on it. And that's how it went gangbusters. And then he hit it, and they were trying to say, well, National Enquirer reported on it, so it's trash. Yeah, that's guilt by association.
That doesn't really work.
So it came out. And then he went to court. And then his wife was sick. She had cancer. His wife had cancer, terminal.
Oh my gosh. It was just a giant that, all of that, all of that contributed. But that being said. If it had just been an affair, I think he would still have been Democrats Golden Boy. Yeah.
He was going to be the one that they had before Barack Obama. Barack Obama was not the next one after Clinton. It was John Edwards. They wanted John Edwards. He was the VP pick for Carrie.
They wanted him. He was the golden boy. And they thought that they could, you know, they thought they really had it made, but turned out, you know, they didn't.
So I don't know because it didn't really, a lot of people talked about it with Trump, the first. term, but I think the thing that made it difficult In talking, because I agree with you. And I've said before, I'm like, well, if you can't, you know, I, I, you know, it's a judge of. It's a judge of character and that if they can't stay true to their wives, can they stay true to the voter?
However, Again, I think that's not the way to look at it. You've got to look at the currency of this. Everybody has a currency.
Some people want public adoration.
Some people want power. And if that currency is being served, they will be faithful to that currency. They will be faithful to whatever gets that currency. More so, maybe than they would ever be within the bonds of marriage. And that's one thing that you can always count on and predict with certain politicians.
So I think that's in some cases makes it different. With POTUS. For his first term, it seemed like everything was already resolved. And I think that's what made it harder to stick. Like, he was on good terms with his first wife, on good terms with the second wife.
They all seemed to be reconciled to how everything went down, and they were fine, and everybody was getting along. None of his kids were Hunter Biden. Nobody was on drugs and running out and partying. You didn't see any bleary-eyed photos of any Trump's kids. Florida out of the club at two in the morning, hopping into a car all drunk as skunks.
You didn't see any of that. And I think That kind of I think that tempered any criticism. This is is what's different though. This is what's different.
So I um With I I just think That I don't know. I just think it's just weird. It's just the whole thing. With Paxton, there's a lot of rumors. And there are a lot of rumors, there's a lot of different stuff that I've heard over the years.
I don't know. I've never put stock in any of it. I don't pay attention to any of it. I just know that there's a lot of whispering and, you know, all. all of that.
Whether or not that hurts him, I think, depends upon the negatives that John Cornyn has. And also, how are people, how badly do they want to get rid of John Cornyn? And how does this play out? I think some of this is going to be predicated upon the nastiness of their dissolvement of their marriage.
So if it gets nasty between them, that could potentially overshadow his Senate bid. And then that. Yeah. Yep, I agree with that 100%.
So, I don't know. That's just kind of like the big thing with it. I. I I'm not gonna like report on it breathlessly, like it's TMZ.
However. I also think that for people who bring up questions about fidelity and they say that that may be a mark against a candidate for them, I don't think that you can get mad at those people for saying that. Either, I mean, you're going to be like, you're going to pretend to be family first or you're going to be family first. You're going to pretend to be principles first or not. I think it's just, I think it exposes people as grifters when they get mad at other individuals that they claim are on their side for espousing observations that everybody held 10 years ago that everyone kind of agreed on.
And they think, yeah, it might be a, that's a character, that's a mark against somebody's character. I'm believe me, I get being Machiavelli probably better than most of these people do.
However, what I don't like are people getting attacked because They say, Well, yes, you shouldn't be cheating on your wife, or yes, you should, you know, keep it within the bonds of marriage, whatever. And I see that happening all over social media. If that's not something that you use as a standard of value, then that's fine for you, but don't look down or attack somebody else that's done probably more than you have for the conservative cause because they disagree. If you've noticed dry skin or changing texture that comes with time, you're not alone, and that's exactly what OneSkin is here to help with. Healthy skin starts at the cellular level.
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Support your show and tell them we sent you. Hey everyone, this is Carrie Champion, the host of Naked Sports. When you sit behind the wheel of the all-new 2025 Nissan Armada Pro 4X, you'll feel like the entire world is your playground, and you'd be right. Because this unshakable fortress of a vehicle is built to take you on your next adventure. With a twin-turbo V6 engine, the all-new Armada is powerful enough to take you anywhere.
With its 8,500 pounds of toying capacity, it will let you bring all your toys along. And with seating for eight, your whole crew can join you. Nissan created a truly capable vehicle in the all-new Armada. In fact, it's the first Armada to earn the Pro 4X badge, which Nissan reserves for its most adventure-ready vehicles. The Armada is a big SUV designed and built for big adventures and must be experienced to be appreciated.
Drive the all new twenty twenty five Nissan Armada today. Learn more at NissanUSA dot com. Intelligent four wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions. You know, if you can find the joy in the small moment, life will always be that much more fun.
That's what Hello's oral and personal care products are all about. They take the mundane of every day and inject it with some everyday yay. Take Hello's anti-plaque and whitening fluoride-free toothpaste, for instance. It will brighten your routine and delight your senses with a formula that's equal parts, fresh, friendly, and has plaque biting power. Or see the difference that a whitening toothpaste powered by vitamin C can do for your smile with Hello's Vitamin C whitening fluoride toothpaste with thoughtful and fun products that can make brushing your teeth feel like a confetti-filled bathroom dance party.
So say hello to happy, to making the most of every moment. Say hello to a vegan, cruelty-free, and never-tested-on animals toothpaste. And say so long to dyes, parabens, artificial sweeteners and flavors, and other things you can do without. Visit helloproducts.com and let hello add some everyday yay into your life. And now, all of the news you would probably miss.
It's time for Dana's Quick Five. All right, so. Hmm. There was, let's see, two people facing. Oh, no, I'm not doing that one.
Oh, we're not doing any of those. I don't like those.
Now, there's a billboard and credit billboards in Cleveland that are drawing a lot of criticism because they say, I buy, it says, I buy crack houses and your house is trash. People are up. Literally, that's what it says. Is your house trash? And then it's like a guy in glasses.
And so it's drawing some criticism. One of them, one of the billboards reads, Yes, I buy crack houses. People are upset over it. There's a lot of backlash from community members and city officials. One particular sign has been taken down, but all the others have remained in place.
Local real estate investors say the signs go too far.
Somebody goes, What was your point? I didn't understand.
Well, the point was that they want to buy your crack house. That's the point. The guy wants to purchase your house of crack. Or, if your house is trash, he would like to buy your trash house. I mean, I think that's kind of the point, right?
It seems pretty direct. Isn't that the whole point of why they're upset? It's a crack house and a trashy house. A trashy crack house. Rarely are the crack houses bougie, you know?
I'm just saying. Like, I. I don't even understand what, what, what is this the sign? And then these investors are like, I don't, what is the point? I don't understand.
Well, he wants to buy your trashy house in cash. That's what I get out of it. Yeah. Do you know that your suitcase is 58 times dirtier than a public toilet seat? What what I believe it.
Who else wipes their suitcase down every time before and after you go, or after you go through security and then when you get home? Just me? Uh yeah, it's 58 times dirtier according to a new study. Uh, and the wheels obviously are the dirtiest.
So, you, you know, like they found like uh staff, a bunch of stuff I can't say, and grody stuff. on these things. Don't lick your wheels. Don't lick your suitcase wheels. Nobody does that, but think about it now.
I bet some people do. I've wheeled my car into the suitcase into the bathroom before.
So imagine. Rolling around on the bathroom floor that whole t I don't take my suitcase back into my room when I get back from traveling until I wipe the wheels down. Really? I always have like the little like wipes on me always. And I don't take it into my house.
I can't say that for everybody else in my family, but I don't take it out. I am that person. I handle. I no. No.
This makes me so sick. This is a travel and leisure story, so. Uh let's see. Uh they're gonna bed they're gonna ban lead ammunition. for hunting and shooting in England, Scotland and Wales.
Yeah, they are. It's restrictions on shots and bullets, toxic metals. Where do you think the lead comes from? It comes from space. Where does the lead come from?
comes from the planet that you're on. How is it all of a sudden if it's in the planet? How is it all of a sudden toxic? You know what? Lead's toxic if you get shot with it.
So just don't do that. We got a lot more on the way. Do you like the Outsiders movie? I mean, there's some like really cool stuff that's happening on our friend Danny Boy O'Connor. He's doing some really big things in Tulsa.
He joins us about his new book, Next. Stick with Us. Welcome back to the program. Dana Lash with you. We're at the bottom of this third hour.
And I got to tell you, so you guys know, Simple Mind's one of my favorite groups ever. And New Gold Dream is one of my absolute favorite songs of all time. And I played this like bumper music at some point. Um, and I got a message on Instagram, and I, my jaw hit the floor because it's Danny Boy O'Connor who messaged me on Instagram. And it was like one of those things where, I mean, this guy's like a legend, and he was a part of like a legendary like musical moment or era in the United States.
I'm like, oh my gosh. And then he. And then not only does he also love that song, but then you realize that he loves a particular author that made a major impact on you when you were growing up and a story that like resonated through the generations. And I'm talking about S.E. Hinton and the Outsiders, which that literally created an entire genre in publishing.
There was no YA anything before Hinton came out with her, with her books. She had five, I mean, boom, boom. She was a teenager when she wrote this book. And she had a bestseller. She was like famous out of the gate.
Very few authors get to enjoy that, not just the notoriety, but knowing that there is such widespread appreciation for their work as she did.
Well then. I was reading more about it and I saw that Danny Boy O'Connor really was so invested in the story. Like most people get memorabilia. You know, they'll get like a signed copy of the book. You know, maybe if they're lucky they might get a copy of the actual screenplay.
He got the house. He literally went, he was in Tulsa, bought the outsider's house, the actual craftsman home where they filmed it.
So I think I can safely say without any debate. That nobody is a bigger fan of the outsiders than Danny Boy O'Connor. And I doubt that there's a bigger film fan anywhere than Danny Boy O'Connor, who joins us now via video. My good friend, Danny, God love you. It's so good to see you.
So good to see you and get to talk to you. It's been a long time coming. And I definitely remember reaching out to you. You have a fantastic choice in bumper music. I said, I think the only one who comes close was the late great Art Bell, who had a very eclectic taste in music.
Some of it I didn't think I would like, but you hear it long enough and you learn to love it. But you and me, I feel like if somebody found my iPod, they would probably return it to you because we like a lot of the same stuff. And for a dude who grew up doing hip-hop all his life, people are surprised that I'm like into New Wave or, you know, the cult or Sisters of Mercy or all of the stuff that I like. That's really what I listen to full-time and have done since day one. But yeah, that's so good to meet you.
And I love your show. And yeah, well, thank you. I'm a big fan of your. Years as well. And the fact that I just had my musical taste affirmed, I'm like going to forever keep that.
It's going to be my epitaph. I wanted to talk to you about your efforts in Tulsa because I also love The Outsiders. And I think I read this thing about it where it was talking about how libraries and teachers really helped maintain the popularity of that book through multiple generations. And that's how I first read it in school. And it was.
A non-condescending way of talking about the differences between people and a search for inclusion. And it was, and I think it was so non-condescending because it was written by a teenager. And I think this book has impacted everybody in some way, but you most significantly, because when you were in Tulsa, I read that you had somebody that was taking you around to look at where they were filming the Outsiders, and you saw this house, and you ended up buying this house.
Well, yeah, so some of that is correct. I went on tour and we played Tulsa in 2009. We played the famous Kanes Ballroom. We had never played as House of Pain, my original group, but we played it as another group called the Coconoscra, which was an amalgamation of House of Pain and a couple other groups. And it was that tour that I ended up stumbling upon Tulsa.
And then I realized, oh my God, this is where they filmed The Outsider.
So I went looking for locations. Never in a million years did I think I'd buy the house. But for the next five years, God had a funny plan, and I kept making my way to Tulsa somehow. And I At year five, after the fifth year of coming here, I realized that if somebody doesn't step up and do something, this house might get torn down. That was going to.
Went and found the owner. It was really hard to find her. She was living in Florida. She inherited the house and she had tenants that were eight months behind in rent. And so we told her we would be interested in hearing her offer.
And when I first found it in 2009, they were asking $42,000 for the house. I ended up, I'll cut to the chase. I ended up paying $15,000 for the house. Wow. Jaw dropped.
Couldn't believe I was the new owner of the outsider's house. But when I got here to Tulsa and Saw what I actually fought, I realized it was a fair deal. But that's where my life story changes because. When you're six foot six and an alpha male, for me, it was hard to ask for help. But when I got here, I had to really admit that I didn't know what I was doing.
And I'm not the guy who's like, I'm not the contractor guy or how to build you things. I'm a creative director, but I'm not like in that area. And I asked for help. And I tell you what, Dana, the people of Tulsa. Put me on high, surrounded me.
They cut the lawn, they fixed the roof, they painted the whatever. They were so. Invested in it. Yeah. Yeah.
And and I decided, you know what, I'm never going home. And home was Los Angeles, California for the last 48 years. And After six months of working on this project, I said, I'm moving to Tulsa, and I've been here for eight years. I love everything about it. The people here are great.
There's so much opportunity here. Not only what, you know, there's a rich music and film history here, but there's a budding film industry going on here right now. And Leon Russell's also from here.
So there's a church studios right down the street from our museum that has also been restored into an incredible museum. And it's a handful of things that are going on right now. When I first got here in 2009, you couldn't say all of the things that I can name out that are popping right now in Tulsa. But right now, Tulsa is on fire in the best possible way. And I couldn't imagine living anywhere else.
And you're helping to put it on the map. I want to tell everybody about Danny's new book, The Oral History of the Outsider: Stained Gold, how S.E. Hinton's novel and Francis Forticopola's movie became cult classics and launched today's Hollywood icons to superstardom. Because there were, I mean, it was an amazing, I know it was done like on a shoestring budget because I know when Coppola was making this movie, he was, you know, he was coming out. He already had the Godfather success.
This was coming out in 83. But he was able to put together this. Amazing, like a dream cast of who you would want to play in this. The Brat Pack, yeah, yeah, yeah. Emilio Esteves, Tom Cruise, uh, Matt Dylan, C.
Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Diane Lane, Leif Garrett. I mean, everybody. Guys went on, you know, and took the 80s over by storm.
So, yeah, it's an incredible cast, but nothing beats the author. An incredible director, too. Copla, I'm a huge. He's one of my favorites. I mean, goodness.
I told Susie Hinton when I first met her, I said, there's nobody has had me more in fear to meet the person. And I've met everybody growing up in Hollywood that you could meet. I said, Susie, I almost canceled on our date because I just didn't think I had it in me to do it. And she said, why? But we hit it off straight away.
She's a fantastic woman. She wrote the book when she was 15 and a half. And she donated to this museum too, not to interrupt you, but she didn't donate to them. She's the number one supporter financially and just of giving us. blessing but her story is really what Hit home for me because, you know, she wrote that book at 15 and a half.
She failed English, D and Creative Writing that year. The book has never been out of print in over 42 years. It sells every year. There's a new crop of outsiders' fans. The reason it becomes a movie is because a librarian noticed a tipping point with her students.
She said, Danny, the boys would read anything, the girls would read anything I give them, but the boys, nuh-uh. And she said, I gave them this book and they devoured it.
So she said, I'm going to have a hundred of them write to Francis Ford Coppola, of all people, and ask him to look at this book and perhaps turn it into a movie. I love that story. I said, Why would you do that? I said, He was the godfather one and two and Apocalypse Now at that time. She goes, Yeah, but he did such a masterful job staying true to the black stallion that I thought he'd be a shoe-in.
And so there's so many. Courses of miracles that had to happen for this book to turn into a movie, the movie to turn into a museum, and now the museum to turn into a Broadway musical, which just took four Tony Awards and is, you know, sweeping the nation. It's going to kick off here in October at the Tulsa PAC.
So that's amazing. I love this story with Coppola. He said that when he got, I read an interview where he said that he got this big, thick packet, and all these kids had their signatures. And he said, I looked at every signature and you could tell they were all individual, like these little signatures. And he was like, I had to read it after that.
I had to. He got on a flight. They sent it to the wrong address in New York. And then his assistant brought it back to LA. And he was getting on another flight to go to New York.
And he said, there was nothing to read on the plane.
So I dug in that packet and I started finding all these letters. By the time I got off that flight, I knew we had to make this movie. And he did it. And he fought to make it happen in Tulsa. And I know, I don't want to give all the mysteries away of the museum, but I know that there was a mystery involving the director's chair because you have Coppola's director's chair.
It's at, I know you have tons of stuff at the house, but you have that chair. It went missing for a while.
Well, yeah, it was stolen on the set of Rumblefish, which is also an SC hidden book. Yep. And, you know, Coppola also did that movie. It came out the same year. Yeah, two weeks later, after rapping The Outsiders, he went right into Rumblefish, also filmed in Tulsa.
And I guess.
Somebody experiencing homelessness at that time decided they needed a chair. And Coppola, everybody broke character to go save his chair. And he said, guys, Get to work. Let's we're here to make a movie. If he wants the chair, let him have it.
So, a wonderful man named Gary Johnson, a Tulsa retired Tulsa PD guy, had found the chair two weeks later behind a liquor store. A guy was living there and he was playing games on the train tracks. They thought he was trying to kill himself.
So, he was there to evict him. He said, You grab your chair. Wait, where'd you get that chair? He's like, That's not my chair. You want that chair?
So, he said, Danny, I was had that in my man cave for 34 years until you got to town. He said, That was going to Vajala with me. But since you're doing this incredible work, we want to donate it to you. And so, that began my journey. And then, and I started to build an incredible collection.
And there's nothing that comes close to our collection of not only her books, movie memorabilia from wardrobe to cars in the movie. And now I collect all of her work. And the dream is to do an Essie Hinton Museum.
So, that's amazing. And I think that definitely deserving. I don't know anybody that has so many hits at that young, like right out of the gate, was writing bestsellers. You did. We're talking to our awesome friend, Danny Boy O'Connor, and the organization.
Oral history of the Outsiders, his new book, The Early Orders You Can Do Right Now, Barnes and Noble, 25% Off Today's Last Day. You were so faithful. To The restoration of this house. I was reading about how detailed you were getting. Like, you were even, you were like looking at the, like, I, for the lack of a better word, like screen grabs, trying to get the tint of the wallpaper correctly, like marks on appliances.
Like, you were so faithful to this. What inspired that? Probably my OCD. You know what? I knew that I was such a fan, and I knew that there were a lot of fans like me.
And I knew that if it didn't pass a test, you know, it was not going to. That's the thing I wanted kids to come out and go, that's not how it looked.
So I was obsessed with it. It took three and a half years. I remember the first interview I did, they said, How long do you think it'll be?
So this is up and running. I said, Give me three, three and a half months, you know, three and a half years later, and you know, $250,000 worth of stuff, not to count the gifts in kind. We cut the ribbon. But if you would have given me another three years, that's how much of a perfectionist because I wanted this thing to be as equally like it has to represent Essie Hinton. It's not about, you know, as much as it's about her legacy and how this book has reached children.
And you said it, you nailed it. It's about the right side of the tracks and the wrong side of the tracks, proverbially, and finding. What she says is we saw the same sunset. Although our worlds were two completely different places, we saw the same sunset. For me, that's finding a mutual thing that we both can like, whether you're left, right, black, white, doesn't matter.
We both look up, see a beautiful creation, the sunset that God made. Even by default, if we both like it, it brings us one step closer. And so that's what we do at that place. And I will end by telling you that we did have close to 6,000 school students. tour of the museum the last semester that just passed before they went into summer.
And that was an unexpected consequence of building this museum. I built this museum for me and your husband to look at switchblades and Matt Dylan's leather jackets and stuff like that. But it's really a museum driven by the kids. And the educational component that we're trying to build out is why we're doing a gala coming up in October on the 12th on the heels of this musical that's going to come to town. That's amazing.
I want to share with everybody before I let you go, talking about Danny Boy O'Connor, this quote that I read from you, which I thought was so incredibly profound. And it kind of hit me the same way as like the message of the outsiders and the way that you approached restoring this house into this museum. You said, I think, as a nation or as a people in the past, we've looked at pop culture as being disposable. And now the things that were once disposable to us become more important than, say, you know, like a Monet. And you said, I've been to Amsterdam, I've seen Rembrandt.
You know, it's a brilliant painting, but I don't relate to that in any way. There's no part of my DNA in that. And the outsiders is like a rite of passage. I love this because I think that you dug that one out. That's good.
That is such a good idea. I mean, I mean, Fonzie raised me, and Jachi and Joni, and Sean Ana was the guys I wanted to look like because they looked like the guys in Brooklyn where I grew up originally before I came to California. Everybody I knew was like a Sean Ana type character.
So when I saw the outsiders, I thought, well, listen, I don't have much, but if I had a band of brothers that would surround me and me surround them and just look out for each other, that this life would be doable. And so it sure has been, but I don't believe. That I would have had the success that I've had here at Tulsa if this house wasn't Los Angeles or New York. It's just people here are cut from a different cloth, and I'm never leaving.
So I'm into that. Danny Boy O'Connor, the book. You got to get it now. The oral history of the outsider, stain gold. And you can do that pre-order right now at Barnes and Noble.
And it comes out this fall. And of course, the musical. We'll make sure we remind everybody about the gala. I'm going to get down there and visit it because I love the book. I've been to Tulsa.
We got affiliates in Tulsa. I got to get down there and I got to go visit. I got to go look at the switchblades and I got to go look at this director's chair and the jacket and the car and everything else. Danny Boy O'Connor, God bless you, my friend. And icon in so many different ways.
And you're just keeping on going. Appreciate you. Thank you, my friend. There you go. Stay gold, that's right.
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