My brother has drawn to my attention a truly fascinating article published (perhaps, republished) in the Journal of the National Film and Sound Archive, an Australian government body. Entitled ‘Crying in Color: How Hollywood Coped When Technicolor Died‘ (PDF).
In short, it explains how the introduction of the much derided Eastman Color film freed filmmakers from the tyranny, expense and technical limitations of the three strip Technicolor process. I had always thought that the near complete change from black and white to colour film during the 1950s was just another industry response to TV keeping audiences away. But it was in large part because Eastman Color was cheap.