In 1969 while attending a BE pistol match at the San Diego Police Range, went into Star for some parts or just to visit.
When I walked into a bare and Spartan room with a desk only... for Ira Wilkerson who at the time ran the office and answered the phone etc, after the usual greetings I notice an angled table in a far corner of the room with what looked to be an aged Star reloader, made some comment to Ira about the machine and he said the loader was an early machine, don't recall what else he said if anything but it was my opinion after walking over and taking a better look that it was a proto type, whether # 1 or not, I don't think that statement was made...by Ira, but I did think it look some what different from the Star I owned at the time (purchased in 1960).
Some years later I was telling Bill Cunningham ( the current operator of SMW in Pioneer, Calif.) about this visit with Star and he stated he was supposed to get this machine ( in the corner) in the deal he negotiated with SMW at the time in mid 1997,but he never did.
To this day Cunningham is not happy about the way this turned out. Can't hold that against him.
I doubt that the base is from a Phelps machine as Phelps came along sometime later. I've heard it said the John Phelps worked for Star (when... I never was told), Ed Broadback who worked for Phelps told me to his knowledge this did not happen. Broadback is a source for some parts even today, so he seems to have had some contact with Phelps Engineering.
