[1] After the war, Petersen left Barstow, California, for Los Angeles and found work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), becoming a publicist there within a year.
Seeing an opportunity, Petersen and Robert Lindsay, another member of the promotion team for the exhibition, left Hollywood Publicity Associates that autumn and began development of Hot Rod magazine.
The first issue of the magazine, with a run of 5,000 copies, was released to coincide with the Los Angeles Hot Rod Exhibition, the show Petersen and Lindsay were initially contracted to publicize.
[5] An avid hunter and collector, Petersen had amassed a sizable collection featuring hundreds of unique and historically significant antique and modern firearms.
They resided in a mansion located at 625 Mountain drive in Beverly Hills, California, formerly owned by actors Harry Joe Brown and Sally Eilers.