As much as any single person, Robert E. Petersen launched the sport of hot rodding as a national movement when he created Hot Rod magazine. Here’s a brief video tribute.

In the late 1940s, hot rodding was a marginal, regional hobby confined mainly to Southern California. But a young Hollywood publicist named Robert E. Peterson saw the movement’s potential and launched Hot Rod magazine, which published its first issue in January 1948 with a run of 5,000 copies. Just one year later, the circulation had exploded to more than 50,000 as car enthusiasts across the country embraced their new national pastime. Through the pages of Hot Rod, gearheads from Los Angeles to Detroit to Miami were now linked. Soon, hot rodding would become a way of life for car-crazy young people and a billion-dollar industry, and the magazine was its first networking tool.

Eventually, the Petersen Publishing Company expanded to dozens of magazines including Motor Trend and Car Craft, as well as non-automotive titles including Guns & Ammo and Tiger Beat. Peteresen passed away in 2007, but his impact on the automotive world is permanent. Courtesy of King Rose Archives, here’s a brief video tribute.