WFF-WBBF North America

[brother]

MICHAEL GLASS story:

After my Dad died of a massive heart attack in 1959 I had just turned thirteen. I began to weight train at home and weighed 140 pounds. I was very skinny and under weight. The year was now 1965 and the start of “Big Time Bodybuilding”. Joe Weider gave us the first Mr. Olympia and the debut of the great Larry Scott. The prize money was only $1,000.00. It would be years before mass acceptance would be the order of the day and the mega health spas would come into there own. Multi million dollar health and fitness industry was still twenty five year away but closing in fast. Working out in dusty old makeshift, ill equipped gyms was all that we had. TV’s Jack La Lanne was stretching his way to good health. I read all I could about health and bodybuilding in Health & Strength and Iron man magazines. I began making trips to Muscle Beach and Gold’s Gym in Santa Monica. There I met Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dave Draper, Frank Zane and many icons in my industry. I was then encouraged by Mr. Universe Dave Draper to enter the Mr. Pacific Southwest Bodybuilding Championships. After winning the title and most muscular man in California I thought I was on my way to my true destiny.
was on my way to becoming a good bodybuilder but providence brought me into the Health club business. In 1971 I was hired by Reverend Bob Zuver to manage Zuver’s Power lifting Hall of Fame Gym in Costa Mesa, Ca. It was a crazy place with extra heavy duty equipment all welded together. The lat pull down had the chain off the Queen Marry and the front door weighed two tons. There were extra large signs that read “Think Big God is Big”. Men and Women worked out on separate days and there was no swearing or leaving your weights out or your membership was terminated. Bodybuilding and Fitness was coming out of the dark ages there were many Dead-End roads, Detours and Pot-Holes in my journey. Many shows I competed in were poorly run AAU physique events. I new what the athletes wanted being a competitor so in 1975 I ran my very first bodybuilding show in a health club I managed called; Adam & Eve athlete Club. We brought in sixty attendees and had fifteen contestants. It was the start of larger events of quality and substance. In 1978 I created the word “Muscle Classic” and hosted the first “Orange County Muscle Classic”. We had one thousand attendees and seventy competitors. The athletes enjoyed the seven foot trophies, bigger posters, better guest posers than our competitors. Remember: At the time there were no women’s bodybuilding and men and women worked out on different days in the gyms and health spas. There were no personal trainers who got paid and gym enrolment included an exercise programs.
n 1980 NPC came into the picture as a stepping stone to the IFBB. In 1984 NPC top events were bid upon to produce. The top bids usually won the opportunity to produce the show that year. I bid on, and won top shows because of my success with other events. In most every case, we doubled and even tripled the attendance and brought in more sponsors than that of the former show producers. Bodybuilding and fitness had now become a multi dollar industry, popularity was growing and the buzz word was personal trainer to the stars.
For many years in America I was known as the promoter of some of the largest and best run Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure events in the World. I worked very hard and long to develop the reputation as: “Promoter Extraordinary” This title was given to me in the mid 80’s by Mr. Robert Kennedy, the Editor of Muscle Mag International magazine. In those days the movie called “Pumping Iron” featured Arnold Schwarzenegger, Serge Nubret and Lou Ferrigno. Serge was five times Mr. Universe had hired me to create the WABBA World Grand Pro/Am Tour. A $200.000.00 world Bodybuilding tour. The event was impressive but created problems with my sanctioning body because I worked for another organization. It brought “The Myth” Sergio Oliva out of retirement to win our World Championships and he went on to win in Paris. It was a big spring board for future Professional events. I always had an affinity for this arena but times were changing. Other promoters asked me to team up with them. I accepted one request and teamed up with Mr. Javier Pollock, IFBB President of all the Caribbean states. We tripled our attendance at the North American Championships and Women’s Nationals and became the largest on record three years running.
Years later after producing over 60 successful sellout events I tied the Mr. Olympia attendance with 5000 one day’s attendees at my Orange County Muscle Classic®. I learned all I could about training and nutrition from the stars I hired to guest pose at all my events. Created “Women’s Figure” at the 2000 Mr. Olympia weekend. I signed a legal contract with the help of none other than “The Trainer of Champions” Mr. Joe Weider. It was the first ever “Joe Weider’s Model Quest”. Joe gave me his blessing and over $150,000.00 worth of publicity in his magazines. At that time Women’s Bodybuilding were too extremely muscular and sponsors weren’t buying it anymore. Notwithstanding, Joe and I agreed it was time for a change and we called it: “Joe Weider’s Model Quest” for women and men”. It was the first “Women’s Figure” contest at the Olympia Expo. The Olympia Expo was filled with eager fans and the event had over 150 entries competing with a total of l 000 requests for entries from this one day event. “Women’s Figure” was born. In 2001 Women’s Figure was implemented with both the NPC and IFBB. In 2001 we created the “Model Quest America and Universe” for women.

Interesting.