// in the HTML, use
//   PARAM NAME="bgColor" VALUE="B8B5AE"
//     (where VALUE is the same hexadecimal value
//     as the HTML COLOR value)
//   in the APPLET tag
// in the JAVA init method :
   Color bgcolor = new Color(
        Integer.valueOf(getParameter("BGCOLOR"), 16).intValue());
   setBackground(bgcolor);