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Introduction
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
INTRODUCTION By the age of twenty-four, Robert E. Petersen was well on his way.1 The ambitious Barstow, California, native had left his desert home at the end of World War II, hoping to find a job in the bustling L.A. area. Within a few months, he had landed an entry-level position at MGM Studios in Hollywood, and by the end of his first year there, he had earned a spot on the company’s team of publicists. When studio layoffs cut his stint with the company short, Petersen joined with a group of former MGM employees like himself to found an independent consulting firm known as Hollywood Publicity Associates. Brimming with confidence, he eagerly began working on his first commission with the new company, which was to promote a winter exhibition at the Los Angeles Armory. It was the summer of 1947; Petersen was twenty-one. The show that he set out to publicize that summer was to be the first of its kind anywhere in the world, an automobile expo focusing exclusively on the burgeoning Southern California hot rod craze. The armory was to be filled, that is, not with shiny examples of Detroit’s postwar renaissance, but rather with prewar coupes and roadsters that had been modified to extract every last ounce of performance from their often decades-old designs (fig. 1). But as he worked to promote this “Hot Rod Exhibition,” he found that there were no dedicated periodicals in which to advertise this unique show—no hot rod newspapers, no hot rod tabloids, no hot rod magazines. Soon Petersen became convinced not only that the sport could use its own periodical but also that he could be the one to produce it. Toward the end of the summer, he discussed the notion with a fellow publicist on the exhibition team, Robert Lindsay, and they formed a partnership. 2 t h e b u s i n e s s o f s p e e d That autumn, Petersen and Lindsay left Hollywood Publicity Associates to begin working on their new venture, Hot Rod Magazine. After securing a $1,000 loan, assembling twenty-four pages of editorial and feature content, and sweet-talking a couple of dozen Los Angeles automotive businesses into purchasing advertisements, the pair contracted with a local printer for a pilot run of 5,000 copies.2 But with no subscribers and no distribution system , Petersen and Lindsay faced an uphill battle. Literally, they had to sell their new magazine themselves, copy by copy. Nevertheless, their first issue sold out quickly—and exceptionally so. But it wasn’t dumb luck: Hot Rod Magazine’s January 1948 debut coincided with the Los Angeles Hot Rod Exhibition,3 and for three days the two were able to work the steps of the armory, unloading thousands of copies and spreading the word. Their second issue sold out just as rapidly the following month, and by the end of the first quarter of 1948, it was clear that Petersen and Lindsay had a winner. Within another year, monthly sales topped 50,000, and readers across the continent—indeed, across the globe—could find the latest issue at their local newsstands.4 In 1950 Lindsay sold out to his partner, and Petersen, at the age of twenty-four, stood alone at the helm of a flourishing publishing empire.5 Thirty-two years later, when Forbes published its first annual list of the four hundred wealthiest Americans, Petersen comfortably made the cut with an estimated net worth of $100 million.6 Over the next fourteen years his wealth—and his company, Petersen Publishing—continued to grow at a steady pace, and he became a fixture on the annual Forbes list. Finally, in 1996, a year in which his net worth stood at $450 million, Petersen sold his company for $500 million.7 By then Hot Rod was but one of the thirty-two titles published each month under the Petersen banner, and it had long since ceased to be his biggest seller. Still, Hot Rod was nothing short of an unqualified success for its founder and his company , for it put them both on the map. Without it, there never would have been a Beverly Hills address for Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Petersen, and there never would have been a Petersen Publishing Company. Hot Rod’s remarkable success owed a great deal to the efforts of its top brass. For starters, Petersen himself deserves...