Color Debut

Of the millions of TV set owners in the U.S., only a few thousand were able to see "the world's first commercial color telecast" last week. Some were specially invited guests who saw the show on CBS colorsets provided in studios in New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston. The others were the 1,000 or so ingenious set owners who had built their own adapters and converters for as little as 30-c- apiece (TIME, Jan. 30).

What they saw were 16 TV stars (and even more sponsors and products) crowded into an hour-long display of CBS's "field sequential" color system.The entertainers, working under blazing lights, showed the strain more than the packaged products. They also suffered from makeup and lighting problems: their faces often appeared pasty and their hair tones uncertain.

But the show produced one clean hit: Ravel's La Valse, danced by members of the New York City Ballet. As the camera caught the sweep and color of the dancers, the background came alive with the gold and crystal of chandeliers, the black and blue checkerboard of floor, the blue and silver of walls.

Next day CBS began its regular color schedule, which will gradually be expanded to 20 hours of color a week: one hour in the morning before 11, two hours in the late afternoon, and two hours on Sunday. For the millions whose black-and-white sets will pick up nothing but meaningless squiggles from CBS during those hours, CBS President Frank Stanton hopefully asserted that colorsets would be coming off U.S. assembly lines by Sept. 1.

*RCA's often-heralded but seldom-seen color system is scheduled to begin public demonstrations next week.

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