What is known about Vincent Bulger?

[DanceMentor]

I heard his name mentioned occasionally throughout my dance career, but I never met him personally or had any person knowledge about him. The reason I bring him up as he was mentioned in another post about John Monte.

I see he was the first person added to the USDC Hall of Fame in 2007 but there’s also no information about why he was added or what his achievements were, however, there is a mention of a memorial service for him here on Dance forums in 2007. He’s also an honorary lifetime member of the NDCA. He served as President of the American Ballroom Company, and vice-president of the International Dance Council.

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It’s pretty clear he was deeply involved with the Fred Astaire organization and potentially during a time when there were a lot of high pressure sales going on and many studios found themselves in trouble in a variety of ways. But there seems to be no information about Vincent Bolger being involved.

There’s one article about a studio he founded in Montclair, New Jersey, and it was referred to as an “infamous” dance studio. Now that’s a pretty bold statement to me, but in the article they don’t support their statement for why it was infamous.

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There’s some information about him serving as the president and chief executive offer of Fred Astaire international, and also has an officer in WDC. But again there’s not a lot of information available online about his tenure.

So I’m just kind of curious who he was as he seems to have a big name among someone but not a lot of information about him either.

 

[chipschap]

Vincent Bulger was my cousin. He passed away in Ukraine in 2003 while at an international dance event. He was a very unique character. Unfortunately in years beyond 1992 I had little contact with him but he was presdent of Fred Astaire International and the NDCA. His name is often mis-spelled "Bolger" but it was "Bulger." I believe he started his career at a studio in South Orange, New Jersey, run by someone named Celeste (I don't know her surname).

I wish I could offer more information than this; I only have anecdotes from family gatherings in New Jersey when I was young.

 

[Arun Garg]

Vincent Bulger was my cousin. He passed away in Ukraine in 2003 while at an international dance event. He was a very unique character. Unfortunately in years beyond 1992 I had little contact with him but he was presdent of Fred Astaire International and the NDCA. His name is often mis-spelled "Bolger" but it was "Bulger." I believe he started his career at a studio in South Orange, New Jersey, run by someone named Celeste (I don't know her surname).

I wish I could offer more information than this; I only have anecdotes from family gatherings in New Jersey when I was young.

I work with some of the older NDCA guard fairly regularly, I will ask about him when I see some of them at Yuletide in a couple weeks!

 

[DanceMentor]

Vincent Bulger was my cousin. He passed away in Ukraine in 2003 while at an international dance event. He was a very unique character. Unfortunately in years beyond 1992 I had little contact with him but he was presdent of Fred Astaire International and the NDCA. His name is often mis-spelled "Bolger" but it was "Bulger." I believe he started his career at a studio in South Orange, New Jersey, run by someone named Celeste (I don't know her surname).

I wish I could offer more information than this; I only have anecdotes from family gatherings in New Jersey when I was young.

I work with some of the older NDCA guard fairly regularly, I will ask about him when I see some of them at Yuletide in a couple weeks!

Great! I appreciate hearing from both of you. I think it's obvious he had a big impact on the ballroom industry but at the same time there's so little that's available about him it's kind of an anomaly and I've always been curious. I heard quite a few second hand stories that I can't really remember all the details but they were interesting. I also corrected the link about the mention of the Vincent Bulger memorial service in my first post