Published: December 19, 2007 10:09 am      

Local cowboy fulfills childhood dream

Businessman cast as bad guy in Western

DANVILLE — In real life, Ted Osborn, president of Danville’s Central States Distribution Service, is a good guy.

But in the independent film, “One-Eyed Horse,” due to be released next summer, Osborn lives out his childhood dream and plays one of the bad guys in the Western movie.

Osborn recalls watching the “Saturday morning serials” as a youngster and being drawn to Westerns, although he admits not fully understanding the premise of the shoot ‘em up epics.

“Even as a kid, when I watched the old Westerns, I had an affinity for the henchmen, or bad guys,” he said.

“Not everyone can or wants to be the good guy in a make-believe situation,” he said.

Years later, his interest in B-Westerns piqued again when he moved to Rosedale, Ind., in Parke County.

“This is when I heard about Tex Terry,” Osborn said.

Edward Earl “Tex” Terry, a veteran of B-Western movies and a Parke County native, was known in Hollywood as a “heavy” and frequently cast as a bad guy.

Although Terry appeared in more than 30 Westerns between 1940 and 1959, his roles often went uncredited.

In the Coxville, Ind., cemetery, about 3 miles from Rosedale, Terry’s epitaph proclaims him the “Bad Man of the Movies.”

Osborn became fascinated with the local Parke County legend, who later in life left Hollywood and returned to the area, first attempting to establish a “Frontier City” in Mansfield, Ind., and then opening Tex’s Longhorn Tavern in Coxville.

Two years ago, Osborn developed a Web site devoted to Tex Terry. It was on that Web site in May that Osborn received a note from Bill Blewett, a member of the production staff and actor in the “One-Eyed Horse.”

As a small tribute to Tex Terry, Blewett said the movie, which was filmed in Maryland, was going to include a bad-guy character named Ed Earl Terry.

Osborn said he e-mailed Blewett, saying, “If Old Earl needs a sidekick, let me know.”

Blewett initially invited Osborn to be a background character in the film, but Osborn yearned for a bigger role — he wanted to be cast as a bad guy.

“It was a little too far to go to Jessup, Md., from Indiana to be a background character, so I asked to be a bad guy,” Osborn said.

Blewett agreed, and Osborn’s bad-guy character, Joe Hayes, was hatched.

“Joe was a common henchman character name for Tex,” Osborn explained. “I picked Hayes for Gabby Hayes.”

After landing a bit part in the movie, Osborn had another hurdle to cross: Learn to ride a horse by October when his part would be filmed.

“I took hour-long horse backing riding lessons for three or four months — right up until the time I had to go,” he said.

His wife, Cathy, is proud of her husband’s newly acquired equestrian skills.

“He stuck with it through the hot weather and sweat,” she marveled. “I was very impressed with my husband.”

Cathy quit her job so she could accompany her husband as he fulfilled his childhood dream and is a background character in the film.

“You weren’t really allowed to be there during the film shooting unless you were in character,” she said.

“You couldn’t wear modern jewelry, watches or glasses,” she said.

A skilled seamstress who had designed costumes for her daughters’ high school and college theater productions, Cathy created her own Civil War-era dress made of green reproduction fabric for the movie.

“There were three or four styles of dress acceptable for that period of time,” she said. “They were coming out of the Civil War and into the Edwardian and Victorian period.”

Cathy borrowed a shawl circa 1870-1880 from a woman in Danville through Glorie Bee Antiques in Covington, Ind., to complete her ensemble.

“The green in the shawl was the same color as the fabric in my dress,” she said.

Osborn pieced together his Western attire with finds on eBay and Google searches.

“Everything was leather so it would be authentic to the period,” he said.

His overcoat and gun were props from the set, but Osborn had his Merkle gun holster custom made so it would be appropriate for the time.

Osborn said he didn’t have to wear makeup, but had three-weeks’ worth of beard for the role.

“I guess I looked fine the way I was,” he said.

The couple filmed their parts during one 12-hour shoot in October.

“It was really something,” Cathy said of the process. “The 12 hours we did might be five or six minutes in the movie.”

Osborn said he, too, was intrigued by the film-making process.

“I had never been on a movie set before,” he said. “To see how it was shot was interesting. Everything was shot out of sequence.”

Although the story line of the movie is set in 1887 Missouri, the film was shot at a farm in Maryland.

When Mother Nature didn’t cooperate with brilliant fall foliage, the leaves on the trees were painted to make it look like fall.

Osborn owns Tex Terry’s walking cane, which was used to draw a line in the dirt between two boxing matches during the movie.

Cathy was filmed in the background during the boxing matches as an observer. She also was selected to stroll arm-in-arm with a suitor on a Sunday afternoon at a county fair.

Osborn’s character rode a painted horse named Scout and primarily held on to the other bad guys’ horses when they’d go into town to cause trouble.

Osborn said he did have one line of dialog, in which he tried to deter a young boy who was trying to befriend him.

“I just tried to be gruff,” he said of his line.

“The extent of which I am in the film depends on the editing,” he said, adding that his wife has a better chance of remaining in the film.

“If I see myself two or three times in the film, I’ll be happy,” he said. “The opportunity was wonderful.”

The couple received no pay for their work, but Osborn said the catered food on the set “was pretty good.”

The Osborns plan to return to Maryland in May for a special viewing of the film.

“I had a blast. I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” Cathy said. “We went for a day, but came back with so many memories.”