Eli Lilly and Company September 18, 1970, rock guitarist legend Jimi Hendrix died from a secobarbital overdose. On June 22, 1969, secobarbital overdose was the cause of death of actress Judy Garland. The drug was a central part of the plot of the hugely popular novel "Valley of the Dolls" (1966) by Jacqueline Susann in which three highly successful Hollywood women each fall victim, in various ways, to the drug. The novel was later released as a film by the same name. Eli Lilly has developed the vaccine preservative thiomersal (also called merthiolate and thimerosal). Thiomersal is effective by causing susceptible bacteria to autolyze.
Jacqueline Susann made publishing history as the first writer to have three consecutive number one novels on the "Times" list. The book was filmed in 1975 by Guy Green as "Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough", with Kirk Douglas, Alexis Smith, Melina Mercouri, Brenda Vaccaro (in an Oscar-nominated performance), and Deborah Raffin as January. The film, executive-produced by Irving Mansfield, was not a critical favorite, but was a commercial success, grossing $15.7 million (the equivalent of $65.2 million in 2016).) Susann's final work was a novella, "Dolores" (Morrow), a "roman a clef" about Jacqueline Kennedy, originally written for the February 1974 issue