How do I set the background color of an HTML Frame?

I have a legacy website using frames. The pages within the frame do not use a white background and hence, I get an annoying "white flash" while the pages in the frames transition. I think this can be fixed by changing the background color of the <frame>, but no matter what is entered, Internet Explorer will NOT see anything but white. Firefox appears to accept the background color, but not so with IE.

NOTE: please don't flame me on using frames -- I know; heck, I think I've even preached it a time or too ... lol...

Solution

I found this, rather obscure, piece of information;

Notice the **AllowTransparency** attribute -- That did the trick -- now, the RightBackground class can set the color as expected. Without the attribute, the color stays white (#ffffff), regardless.

Reference can be found here: http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html/tagpages/f/frame.htm

<frame  allowTransparency="true" class="RightBackground" src="BottomRight.asp" marginheight="0" marginwidth="10px" name="BottomRight" />

Just FYI, the contents of RightBackground just sets the background color:

 <style type="text/css">
  .RightBackground
  {
     background-color: #EAF4D9;
  }
 </style>