January 1962 - January 20, 1962 (Saturday)

January 20, 1962 (Saturday)

• The play Prescription: Murder, by Richard Levinson and William Link, was first presented, with the premiere at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. Character actor Thomas Mitchell portrayed a disheveled police detective named Lt. Columbo. When the play was made into a TV movie in 1968, Peter Falk portrayed the detective, and then in the title role of Columbo, one of the recurring segments of the NBC Mystery Movie. Columbo had been seen once before, on July 30, 1960, in the presentation "Enough Rope", part of The Chevy Mystery Show.
• Petula Clark had her first number one hit in France with "Romeo".
• Died: Robinson Jeffers, 75, American poet; and J. Spencer Love, 65, who went from being a payroll clerk at a cotton manufacturer, to being the founder of Burlington Industries.