Did John Monte create the concept of Pro-Am?

[DanceMentor]

I was reading a post by Wayne Eng, where he was saying that John Monte not only started pro-am ballroom dancing in the United States but also founded the first United States Dance Championships in 1971.

Then Larry Dean replied and mentioned some other names I’ve heard of, but I don’t know them very
“I remember when John was at our Breakers Championship as a chairman in the early years and looked over at Vincent Bulger and said” where did all these Pro/Am competitors come from? We have to do something to get more Pro/Ams in the USBC’s event, like the Dean’s have!” That was the year we had over 5,000 entries at the Breakers and the first to do so!”

If I recall Vincent Bulger was a high up in the Fred Astaire organization. I feel like I remember hearing him talked about in my brief stent working for Fred Astaire (and not liking it).

Lorry Dean is great. He’s a very positive person. I was fortunate enough to attend a couple of his competitions. I didn’t get a chance to meet or know his wife, but he speaks highly of her all the time and they seem like an ideal couple that has stayed together for a long long time.

 

[Steve Pastor]

He Wrote a Western Swing article for BALLROOM DANCE M.AGAZlNE OCtober 1960/

As to John Monte, he was in the same studio I worked at in NYC ( Park east ) his home base, which was the only studio Arthur M retained . tangotime, Aug 17, 2014 "Original" music West Coast Swing was danced to

John “Monte first set foot in the dance business as a Fred Astaire student when he was about 16. Like Astaire, Monte began as a tap dancer in an age when jazz and tap were king. His FADS company career began in 1954, about 7 years after Fred Astaire’s original dance classes began.
The Fred Astaire Main Office was located at 487 Park Avenue in New York City at the time. The company's decision-makers gathered here to organize a 1958 ballroom convention at the nearby unfinished Park East Studio. During that 2-week convention, about 150 Fred Astaire people from around the country packed the studio which had no proper floor. LaValle recalls seeing John Monte here for the first time. 'A little guy on a raised platform with a piano,' the future Company leader sat square in the middle of the ballroom. It was his job to provide the dancing music for the convention!
In approximately 1960, John Monte replaced Frank Pagliaro as FADS’ National Dance Director. Monte became President of the National Council of Dance Teachers Organization (NCDTO) in the United States (the NCDTO evolved into today’s NDCA). NCDTO work called for Monte and his assistant, Dagmar Jarvel, to travel to Fred Astaire Dance Studios all over the country to provide teacher competition training and dancing tests.” fred-astaire.blogspot.com/2013/10/john-monte-award-proud-legacy-for-fred.html 4.2019