1951-11-12 The Mission of the Betta (a still-missing episode)

One of the missing Suspense episodes has an interesting history. The script was written by William N. Robson and used a portion of a script that aired eight years earlier in an episode of Man Behind the Gun. Robson was starting to get pressure within CBS for his mention in Red Channels. It was inaccurate and out of context, but led to his banishment from CBS from 1952 to 1955. (He returned with some measure of triumph when he became producer of Suspense in Fall 1956). For this particular script, produced and directed by Elliott Lewis, he used the pseudonym "Christopher Anthony," the first names of his young sons.

This newspaper clipping from the November 11, 1951 Shreveport LA Times explains the story:

This is how the credit for Robson appeared in the script as "Christopher Anthony": 

Mission of the Betta used part of a script from a program Robson was deeply involved in, Man Behind the Gun. The series would win a Peabody Award, one of many for programs that Robson was involved with over his career. In 1943, Man Behind the Gun presented Incident in the Pacific about a submarine operation in the Pacific. A repeat 1944 performance is in circulation and can be found at https://www.mediafire.com/file/z2xume6vq9y0euh/Man_Behind_the_Gun_1944-02-19_Incident_in_the_Pacific_%2528repeat_of_1943-03-07_program%2529.flac/file 

The March 7, 1943 Des Moines Register had an item about the original 1943 broadcast. Two of the actors rose to stellar radio careers. At the time of the picture, producer Robson was 37, and Jackson Beck and Frank Lovejoy were 31.

This is a newspaper clipping from the March 3, 1943 Circleville OH Herald that summarizes the plotline of the original Man Behind the Gun script.

I first heard of Man Behind the Gun when I interviewed Jackson Beck in 1977. He said it was his most rewarding radio effort for its support of armed services personnel during WW2. Robson produced and directed in the series, and also wrote some of its scripts. He had great affection for the series and was quite proud of it.

About three pages of dialogue in Mission of the Betta originates from that Incident in the Pacific script. From there the scripts diverge into different plotlines.

Author Neil Verma cites this Man Behind the Gun scene and production technique in his book Theater of the Mind: Imagination, Aesthetics, and American Radio Drama (Amazon http://a.co/d/av6ANEF). Verma teaches at Northwestern University.

The staging of the broadcast sounds similar to that used by Antony Ellis for Kaleidoscope. Perhaps the studio set-up of Mission gave him the idea https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2025/01/1955-07-12-kaleidoscope.html

The search for a broadcast recording, network or AFRS, of The Mission of the Betta is ongoing. 

Details of Robson's CBS blacklisting and return can be found at 
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/12/1955-03-08-nobody-ever-quits.html