Ian Parker described the book as "a roman à clef — it was generally thought to have been inspired by the life of Howard Hughes".

TV Guide Online's capsule summary of the movie says, however, "Deny it though he might, Harold Robbins obviously used parts of the life of Howard Hughes as the basis for his major character, Jonas Cord."

Hell's Angels starred Jean Harlow, but it was not her debut; she was an established actress with seventeen earlier screen credits.

Jean Harlow was famous as (in the words of her official estate-sponsored website) "Hollywood's Original Blonde Bombshell", but her bust measurement was not extraordinary.

The names of real people whom Robbins' fictional characters resemble are often mentioned briefly within the novel, potentially further confusing the situation.

Murray Schumach's review in The New York Times on June 25, 1961, opens: "It was not quite proper to have printed The Carpetbaggers between covers of a book.

He complains that the plot is merely "an excuse for a collection of monotonous episodes about normal and abnormal sex—and violence ranging from simple battery to gruesome varieties of murder".

The profile of Robbins in Gale's Contemporary Authors Online claims that The Carpetbaggers "is estimated to be the fourth most-read book in history".

In 1960, publisher Grove Press won the Supreme Court case contesting the ban, but even in 1961 booksellers all over the country were sued for selling Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer.