Color Postponed

The CBS system of color TV, in its fourth month of regular broadcasting, was stopped dead last week by a letter from Washington. The letter, written by Defense Mobilizer Charles E. Wilson, asked CBS to suspend its plans for the mass production of color sets. The request was made, said Wilson, in order to save scarce materials needed for the defense effort.

Since color sets use the same materials as black & white sets, which are not affected by the order, Washington observers found it hard to follow Mobilizer Wilson's reasoning. A later announcement seemed to make it clear that the order was aimed at men rather than metals. This week in Washington, Wilson will meet the nation's TV manufacturers and urge them to abandon temporarily all color experimentation in order to free their best electronic engineers for "important military projects."

CBS President Frank Stanton, already plagued by costs, technical problems and the public's standoffish attitude toward color, seemed relieved to get off the hook. He promised instant compliance with the Government request, and immediately discontinued regular color telecasts (10 1/2 hours a week) on the ground that the public has too few color sets to make further broadcasts worthwhile.

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