Montrose Star & The Star

Henry McClurg Publications
The Montrose Star
& The Star
July 1976 to June 1980

Henry McClurg was a publishing force in Houston for decades, with quite a few different publications over the years The first, Contact, was national, and the rest focused on Houston. The history gets a bit confusing when various entities were sold. "Montrose Star" began 7/16/76 and by issue 65 (10/14/77) was just called "Star," and reduced its size from 11"x17" to 5 1/2"x8 1/2" (it temporarily reduced it size further, for issues #87 to #94 to 'pocket size, 4"x7"). The 10/6/78 edition, #113, was billed "Last Issue," promising the return of "Montrose Star" the next week, back to the 11"x17" format, on 10/12/78 but unfortunately I have not had access to issues #114 through #119. Issue 19 listed Hal Deans as Publisher and "Henry (Parker) McClurg" as Editor. "Henry Parker" was the name he used when publishing Contact. In Issue 50 the masthead states the "Star newspaper chain is owned by Montrose Star."

In my opinion the change to The Star was a huge mistake, as its content was vastly reduced along with its value as a chronicle of news of those times....the mistake lasted almost exactly one year. Back as a real newspaper it continued. In the 11/15/79 issue it was announced that Houston businessman (owner of Byman's, a furniture store ) Bert Hollister was now co-publisher, with McClurg given as Editor and Bill Lubing as Assistant Editor. At the end of 1979 McClurg announced he had sold the paper to Hollister, and the next issue brought some personnel changes, such as Lubing as Editor, and George Barnhart as new journalist. Things were getting rocky though, and after issue #189 Hollister was no longer listed as Publisher; no one was. It appears Lubing was in charge to ride out the remaining issues, with #196 (6/19/80) being its last. (so...no Pride coverage for that year).

"The Montrose Star," under that owner, had failed after six months, and McClurg, having a non-compete agreement was free to start again, with "Montrose Voice," which he did on 10/29/80. Hollister, incidentally, was murdered in 1987.

Thanks to the University of Houston Special LGBT Collections area for the loan of these, they made this page possible.

1-071676, PDF
2-072376, PDF

3-073076, PDF
4-080676, PDF

5-081376, PDF
6-082076, PDF

7-082776, PDF
8-090376, PDF

9-091076, PDF
10-091776, PDF

11-092476, PDF
12-101276, PDF

13-100876, PDF
14-101576, PDF

15-102276, PDF
16-102976, PDF

17-110576, PDF
18-111276, PDF

19-111976, PDF
20-112076, PDF

21-120376, PDF
22-121076, PDF

23-121776, PDF
24-122476, PDF

25-123176, PDF
26-010777, PDF

27-011477, PDF
28-012177, PDF

29-012877, PDF
30-020477, PDF

31-021177, PDF
32-021877, PDF

33-022577, PDF
34-030477, PDF

35-031177, PDF
36-031877, PDF

37-032577, PDF
38-040177, PDF
39-040877, PDF

40-041577, PDF
41-042277, PDF

42-042977, PDF
43-050677, PDF

44-051377, PDF
45-052077, PDF

46-052777, PDF
47-060377, PDF

#48 missing
49-061677, PDF
50-062477, PDF

51-070777, PDF

55-080577, PDF

62-092477, PDF

63-100177, PDF

missing
#52, #53, #54,
#56 through #61
and #64

Name and format changed to The Star, 10/14/77 - 10/6/78
(there was a gap between issues #51 and #65 so could not scan)
fortunately, the numbering was kept consistent throughout the three series

65-101477 , PDF
66-102177, PDF