It's really not necessary to read anything Harold Robbins wrote after WHERE LOVE HAS GONE (1962), and that includes the over-inflated sex saga THE ADVENTURERS, published in 1966. By 1969, when THE INHERITORS was published, Harold Robbins had become the world's bestselling novelist. Unfortunately, this milestone was achieved at almost exactly the point when he began writing almost exclusively for money to fund his lavishly hedonistic jet-set lifestyle, with the result that his novels began a downward spiral in quality that was increasingly (and sometimes embarrassingly) evident in almost every one of the thirteen subsequent novels he would publish before his death in 1997 (the exception being MEMORIES OF ANOTHER DAY, which for some reason had more plot and better characterizations than the other twelve from this period). By the 1990s his novels were no longer shocking in their sexual forays, and due to physical problems his output had become sporadic - his giant-sized ego could not comprehend that his once-vast audience had pretty much deserted him, for which he blamed everyone but himself and the bad books he did produce.I first read THE INHERITORS in 1971 - either this or WHERE LOVE HAS GONE was the Harold Robbins novel I ever purchased (my older sister was a big Robbins fan), when it appeared in paperback in 1971 (when it cost all of $1.50). I read it again somewhere around 1980, I think.THE INHERITORS was the final novel of a trilogy that began with THE DREAM MERCHANTS (1949), which chronicled the early days of the film industry in Hollywood, and continued with THE CARPETBAGGERS (1961). THE INHERITORS is set in the decade from 1955-1965 and deals with Hollywood's transition from movie capital to entertainment capital, as television becomes the most important medium for entertainment and ultimately for communication. And was Robbins psychic, or did he just interview some television insider who talked too much? A character in the novel says "CATV is already here, next there will be Pay TV, soon there will be TV tape cassettes, someone will have to work day and night just to fill the demand." The characters, are, of course, thinly-disguised versions of some high-profile people of the time (much easier than coming up with your own): TV executive Stephen Gaunt was reportedly modeled on James Aubrey, independent movie producer Sam Benjamin seems a dead-ringer for Joseph E. Levine (who produced film versions of several Robbins novels in the 1960s), and there's even an Italian actress named Marilu Barzini who wins an Oscar for a film, THE SISTERS, produced by Benjamin - kind of like Sophia Loren winning an Oscar for TWO WOMEN, for which Levine was an uncredited producer. A washed-up star of movie musicals named Jana Reynolds makes a comeback with a hit TV variety show, a fate which did not quite befall the character's model, Judy Garland, who died a few months before this book was published.Robbins said at the time THE INHERITORS was published: "My new book is very modern in its telling...This is the third time in my writing career that I've changed style. It's McLuhanesque ... descriptions and backgrounds are kept to a minimum ... My ambition is to remove from the reader the feeling that he is holding a book in front of him."Robbins never held back on tooting his own horn, but basically he was making excuses for his increasing laziness as a writer who had essentially begun phoning in his novels.So, there’s very little period detail other than Sixties dialog that was already becoming dated in 1969 (Robbins's attempt at portraying the 'generation gap' is cringe-inducing). There are lots of boardroom (and bedroom) meetings, and dealing and double-dealing, as well as lots and lots of drinks poured (martinis at first, then Scotch) and lots and lots of cigarettes lit (including the marijuana variety); the endless drinks and cigarettes are just filler.I know - I started out this review by saying that "It's really not necessary to read anything Harold Robbins wrote after WHERE LOVE HAS GONE (1962)" and yet I've read THE INHERITORS not once, not twice, but three times. Go figure.
