TWENTY years ago, TIME began using color photographs regularly, -and our color staff has been actively celebrating the birthday. Last week's issue carried color pictures from China, the first in any U.S. magazine after Peking admitted the American table tennis team. This week we have nine color pages--on China, in the Art section and with the cover story on the Broadway hit Follies..

Because a color spread must go to press earlier than the magazine's general deadline, agility is necessary when the pictures concern late-breaking events. More often, planning is done weeks in advance. Edwin Bolwell, color-projects editor, selects a promising subject. Bolwell and Reporter-Researcher Mary Themo prepare guidelines for the photographer. Picture Editor John Durniak, who is responsible for all of TIME'S photo coverage, then chooses one or more cameramen particularly suited for the job.

Capturing Follies on film was one of Bolwell's and Durniak's more pleasurable challenges. Shooting during a regular performance might have disrupted it. Therefore a "photo call" was arranged--a performance of the play's highlights to the accompaniment of a single piano. Watching from the lip of the Winter Garden's stage, Bolwell said: "I'm amazed by the ability of the performers to provide us with an instant replay whenever we ask for it. They can stop in the middle of a torch song or freeze a high kick without sacrificing one ounce of showmanship."

Taking the right pictures is not the end of the process. The masses of incoming photographs are usually weeded through by Color Director Arnold Drapkin and Picture Researcher Carol Saner. In the case of this week's China spread, they culled 2,160 transparencies, selected about 50 from which TIME'S art directors then chose nine for their final layout. Once a layout is approved, Drapkin or his associate Erwin Edelman takes it from New York to our Chicago printing plant--a mission that is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the engravings.

While the Follies.v color spread was being prepared, a team headed by John Elson was at work on the cover story. It was written by Stefan Kanfer, our movie critic, making one of his frequent forays into Broadway territory, and with good reason: he is a sometime playwright. Five years ago, Alexis Smith starred in a pre-Broadway tryout of Kanfer's comedy, The Coffee Lover.

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