I've decided to ring in the 2011 New Year with my own misguided version of public service: an online archive of a scandalous and short-lived 70's teen magazine! The first issue of Star hit the stands in February 1973. With its over-the-top advice and irreverent coverage of LA's teenage groupie scene, it wasn't long before Petersen Publishing was feeling the heat from "concerned citizens". Five issues and five months later, publication ceased. A sixth issue was planned but never printed. Such controversy along with coverage of "new breed" Sunset Strip groupies (Shray Mecham, Sable Starr, Lori Lightning, Queenie Glam) and glam venues like Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco cemented the mag's later cult status among fans and collectors.

After spending endless hours and a sizeable cash stack to secure all five original issues, there was only one illogical step left: do it all over again by making every page of this impossibly rare groupie mag available online. Actually, the website idea was the very thing that induced a former Star staffer — the only one among several I tracked down who'd actually kept any issues — to sell the mags. My quest was veering toward hopeless so a big thanks to Judy Shane for making this happen. I promised a website and here it is... in record time, too!

This is just one of several just-for-fun, archival sites I've created over the past decade. A complete list can be found over here. I don't accept advertising or other means of offsetting the costs of creating and hosting the sites. I will, however gladly accept referrals to collections. Know someone selling their records, fliers, fanzines or photos? Please send 'em to my want list page and encourage 'em to e-mail me. I am, of course, very interested in original Star issues and all related ephemera! My thanks to Lisa Fancher for hipping me to the mag.

Dig star1973.com? Then you'll probably wanna see what happened next over at RockScenester, my online archive of Rock Scene magazine 1973 - 1982. Please show some appreciation by hyping 'em elsewhere online! Facebook and Twitter widgets can be found at the bottom of this page.

— Ryan Richardson




January 2019 update! With Adobe Flash becoming deprecated, I've eliminated the individual flip-books and created a single PDF download containing all five issues!




New Year's 2015 update! Four years after I first posted star1973.com, I figured it was time to give you Star fans a whole 'nother dose of fun. As a token of my appreciation for everyone who's taken the time to drop a line or link to the site, I've added some rarely glimpsed Star magazine ads. And, just for kicks, I went ahead and tracked down the young lady who won the Raspberries Rollswagen contest, too!




A post-script about the watermarked pages... sometimes extracting even a wee bit of online civility can be difficult. Some web denizens don't bother handing out a speck o' credit — not so much as a link — to sources of copied content. Hell, I even discovered one dirtbag selling CD-R's on eBay comprised entirely of images downloaded from my paperback sites! In a better world, the watermarks wouldn't be necessary. Don't get me wrong, I'm down with re-blogging and sharing. I just want a li'l credit for the time and money I've put into the site.