Meprobamate (marketed under the brand names Miltown by Wallace Laboratories, Equanil by Wyeth, and Meprospan) is a carbamate derivative which is used as an anxiolytic drug. It was the best-selling minor tranquilizer for a time, but has largely been replaced by the benzodiazepines.

Meprobamate was first synthesized by Bernard John Ludwig, PhD, and Frank Milan Berger, MD, at Carter Products in May 1950. Wallace Laboratories, a subsidiary of Carter Products, bought the license and named it Miltown after the borough of Milltown in New Jersey. Launched in 1955, it rapidly became the first blockbuster psychotropic drug in American history, becoming popular in Hollywood and gaining notoriety for its seemingly miraculous effects.

In the mid-1940s, Dr. Berger was working in a laboratory of a British drug company, looking for a preservative for penicillin, when he noticed that a compound called mephenesin had a sedative effect in small laboratory animals (rodents). Dr. Berger subsequently referred to this sedating or “tranquilizing” effect in a now-historic article, published by The British Journal of Pharmacology in 1946. However, there were three major drawbacks to the use of mephenesin as a tranquilizer: a very short duration of action, greater effect on the spinal cord than on the brain, and a weak activity. After moving to Wallace Laboratories in New Jersey, Dr. Berger and a chemist, Dr. Bernard Ludwig, synthesized a chemically-related tranquilizing compound, meprobamate, that was able to overcome these three drawbacks. It was soon prescribed under the trade name Miltown.

Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Chinese AmericanHong Kong actor,martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement. He is widely considered by many commentators, critics, media and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist and pop culture icon of the 20th Century. He is often credited with changing the way Asians were presented in American films.

Lee was born in San Francisco to parents of Hong Kong heritage but was raised in Hong Kong until his late teens. Lee returned to the United States at the age of 18 to claim his U.S. citizenship and receive his higher education. It was during this time that he began teaching martial arts, which soon led to film and television roles.

His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked a major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world, as well. He is noted for his roles in five feature-length films: Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Game of Death (1978), both directed by Robert Clouse.