Together with The Dream Merchants (1969) and The Inheritors (1969), The Carpetbaggers is part of Robbins's Hollywood Trilogy. As in the case of The Depression in the New York Trilogy, the novels deal with unrelated characters but create a panorama when read in conjunction. Whereas The Carpetbaggers concerns Hollywood in the heyday of the studio system, The Dream Merchants concerns the early years of independent entrepreneurship, and The Inheritors concerns the new world of television.

At the time of original publication, The Saturday Review called The Dream Merchants "by far the most ambitious novel ever to be fashioned around the American motion-picture industry."

Johnny Edge is a small-time hustler who helps nickelodeon owner Peter Kessler rise to be a major Hollywood producer of quality films. At first seduced by the glamour of movie star Dulcie Warren, Johnny in the end reciprocates the love of Kessler's daughter Doris. The...