Editing Harold Robbins (section)

==Early life==
Robbins was born Harold Rubin in New York City in 1916, the son of Frances "Fannie" Smith and Charles Rubin. His parents were well-educated Jewish emigrants from the [[Russian Empire]], his father from [[Odessa]] and his mother from Neshwies ([[Nyasvizh]]), south of [[Minsk]]. Robbins later falsely claimed to be a Jewish orphan who had been raised in a Catholic boys' home.<ref name=wilson>{{cite book| last=Wilson| first=Andrew| title=Harold Robbins: The Man Who Invented Sex| date=January 11, 2011| pages=7, 14| publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]]| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4347c2YS18C&pg=PA7| isbn=978-1608196586| access-date=September 16, 2020}}</ref><ref name="kirjasto">{{cite web |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/robbins.htm |title=Harold Robbins |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014101147/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/robbins.htm |archive-date=October 14, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Instead he was raised by his father, a pharmacist, and his stepmother, Blanche, in [[Brooklyn]].<ref name=wilson/>

Robbins dropped out of high school at 15 to enlist in the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]].<ref name="guardian 1970 interview">[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/17/harold-robbins-interview-gide-mann-and-me-1970 Harold Robbins interview: Gide, Mann and me - archive, 1970] ''[[The Guardian]]''. Retrieved October 3, 2023.</ref> He claimed to have served on a submarine that was torpedoed, leaving him as the sole survivor;<ref name="hollywoodreporter">[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/revisiting-harold-robbins-forgotten-dirty-old-man-american-letters-1221836/ Revisiting Harold Robbins, the Forgotten “Dirty Old Man of American Letters”] ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]''. Retrieved October 3, 2023.</ref><ref name="nytjanetmaslin">[https://web.archive.org/web/20150605053816/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/arts/15masl.html Never Enough: A Writer’s Life of Sex, Drugs and Excess] ''[[The New York Times]]'' via [[Internet Archive]]. Retrieved October 3, 2023.</ref> in fact, no U.S. submarines were torpedoed during the 1930s.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

Robbins worked a variety of jobs, including errand boy, [[bookmaker|bookies']] runner, and inventory clerk in a grocers. He was employed by [[Universal Pictures]] from 1940 to 1957, starting off as a clerk and rising to an executive.<ref name="nytimes.com" />