The Outsiders

The letter that inspired a cult classic

Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez, and Patrick Swayze on the set of The Outsiders, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. (Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

Few movies have boasted a cast as impressive as The Outsiders. Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, and Matt Dillon—all up-and-coming stars at the time—lit up the screen in 1983 and went on to define a generation of Hollywood talent. But believe it or not, this iconic film only came to be thanks to the efforts of students at Lone Star School in Fresno, California. In 1980, their librarian, Jo Ellen Misakian, sent a letter to Francis Ford Coppola, urging him, on behalf of the students, to adapt their favourite novel, The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. They even included a petition, signed by 110 students. To their amazement, not only did a reply eventually arrive from Coppola’s collaborator, Fred Roos, but it seemed Coppola shared their enthusiasm. Over the coming months, Roos kept them updated on the film’s progress and even asked the students for feedback as it was being made—a journey that transformed their beloved book into a cult classic, culminating in a special première of the finished film at Lone Star School.

Below are four letters: the initial pitch from Misakian, and three subsequent letters from Roos. Keep scrolling for transcripts.

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March 21, 1980

Dear Mr. Coppola:

I am writing to you on behalf of the students and faculty of Lone Star School. We hope you will take the time to consider our request. 

We are all so impressed with the book, THE OUTSIDERS by S. E. Hinton, that a petition has been circulated asking that it be made into a movie. We have chosen you to send it to. In hopes that you might also see the possibilities of the movie we have enclosed a copy of the book.

Lone Star is a small school in Fresno County. We have a student body of 324 students. It is a kindergarten through eighth grade school. I feel our students are representative of the youth of America. Everyone who has read the book, regardless of ethnic or economical background, has enthusiastically endorsed this project. This plea comes from our seventh and eighth grade students. 

We feel certain that if you will read the book you will agree with us. 

Thank you for your time. 

Sincerely yours,
Jo Ellen Misakian
Librarian Aide
Lone Star School Library

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These letters can also be found in the second volume of Letters of Note, reproduced by kind permission of American Zeotrope – © Zoetrope Corp. 2000.

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Transcripts for Roos’ letters

June 10, 1980

Dear Mrs. Misakina:

Thank you for sending us your letter, the petition from your students and the book “THE OUTSIDERS” by S.E. Hinton. Francis Ford Coppola received them and was very impressed with the passionate interest you and your students showed in this book. 

We are thus following through on it as you can see by the attached report that was done by one of our readers. The reader seems to agree with you and your students. 

The next step is for myself and other members of our company to read the book and see if we really might want to make a film out of it. I'll try to keep you posted on the progress. 

Thanks again to you and your seventh and eighth graders for being good literary scouts and for choosing our company. 

Sincerely, 
Fred Roos

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Dear Miss Misakian:

Thanks for your letter of July 14, 1980. Sorry your class was not in school to share the news. 

The latest is that the Zoetrope Studios executives read and discussed at length the pros and cons of making a movie out of “THE OUTSIDERS” with some being for it and some being against it. I flew to Tulsa to have a personal meeting with Suzie Hinton which I enjoyed very much and found valuable. 

The final decision has been to go ahead and try to option the book with the aim of filming it if we can get a good screenplay. The negotiations with Ms. Hinton's agents are going on now. 

By the time school reconvenes, hopefully we will have acquired “THE OUTSIDERS” and have begun to hire a screenwriter to adapt it. If you want to further use this book as a class study project, perhaps you could have each of your students write an essay on why they like “THE OUTSIDERS”; perhaps talking about their favorite scenes or about scenes they don't like. This could be helpful to we the filmmakers. 

Also, there is a chance that we may not be able to use the title “THE OUTSIDERS” because of another movie that came out recently with that title. I hope we don't have to change it but if we do, I'd like to hear your students suggestions of an alternative title...such as “Ponyboy”.

I'd also like to hear your students opinion of one possible change that we might have in the movie. That is to not have a gang fight at the end. It seems wrong to me in light of what has just happened to Dallas, Johnny and Bob that the two groups would still have another fight. Hopefully they would have learned something during the course of the story. At least I'd like to think they had and to show audiences through our movie that they had. Any opinions on this would be helpful. 

I look forward to hearing from you and your students in a few weeks. Again, thanks for your help. 

Sincerely,
Fred Roos

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April 21, 1982

Dear Mrs. Misakian, 

I want to keep you and the school up to date on the progress of Lone Star's very own movie production, THE OUTSIDERS.

We are presently shooting the film in Tulsa and are into our fifth week. We have a wonderful cast and it's going very well. 

The enclosed production notes will tell you and the kids about everything they need to know about the movie and who's in it. 

I'll keep giving you updates. 

Sincerely,

Fred Roos
Producer

cc: Francis Coppola
Beverly Walker

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