Or have they all been replaced by “personal assistants”?
I do. How can yo live without one?
Searching for ‘domestic servant, employment’ got this, and others.
I got my current position as House Elf the old fashioned way, however, I got married.
I would bet Queen Elizabeth II still has a few…
I’m sure real posh places…like, of course, Buckingham Palace…have butlers.
What you must understand is, a butler is not simply the male equivalent of a maid.
A butler is in fact the general manager of the entire wait-staff.
My late father’s boss (who’s my age) inherited his family’s estate. Although no one actually lives there anymore, he continues to keep it maintained with a full household staff. What we’d call the butler he calls the “household manager.”
There is this mysterious world of the rich and famous who most certainly do have butlers (real ones with black jackets and stripey trousers). My partner works for a very upmarket food retailer in a very smart area of London and when she has had to help out on home deliveries, she has frequently had the door opened by a fully besuited butler (and has been told to use the ‘servants entrance’).
Glad to see that the old ways and manners have not been completely lost.
Incidentally in several townhouses; using the “servants entrance” is not (completely) a jibe at the deliverer and reminding s/he to know his or her place; but simply the front door is not big enough to let much in; the servants entrance will have to do.
We had housekeepers and gardeners when we lived in Africa in the 90s. That was normal for diplomats. Hired help was inexpensive, provided employment, and helped with security for your home. While the amount we paid wasn’t a lot for us, it was a damn good income for the locals, and those jobs were hotly competed for.
I’ve heard that not having a butler greatly reduces your chances of dying under mysterious circumstances during a storm where the roads are impassible and the telephones are out while simultaneously hosting a dinner party for a colourful cast of characters possessed of many dark secrets and thin alibis and a plucky young investigator from Scotland Yard.
Maybe that’s driving a downturn in employment.
Plus I assume the service entrance is much closer to the kitchen which is where groceries would be delivered.
Oh, I adored that movie. Many was the midnight screening of “The Rocky Horror Butler Show” that we enjoyed in High School.
We taxpayers still pay for one at the White House.
Just a couple of years ago, the butler for 8 Presidents died. (A black man, he served starting with Truman, and retired under Reagan. But he lived long enough to see a black man as President.)
I have a butler of sorts.
He works for barter part time.
I give him books and other shit, plus he gets to be around the girls my band attracts as we practice at my house–he keeps the house straight and is a general gofer and door answerer and problem solver for any of the musicians. He calls himself “the Butler” mostly, but sometimes “roadie,” although he’s too incompetent with music equipment to be trusted as a roadie, though he has lugged some speakers. Nobody in the band calls him a roadie, though maybe he is, if a roadie can be someone who can’t handle setting up the gear.
Mostly a butler, I’d say.
I’ve seen some years ago a documentary about an upscale butler school. They also followed an actual butler in his daily duties. So, apparently, old-style butlers still exist.
I think I know what you’re talking about. Did it have a section about how they’re now training women as butlers? Female butlers are, not surprisingly, prefered over men by wealth Middle-Eastern and South Asian families. Didn’t the Queen recently hire her first female butler as well?
You can negate most butler-related peril by making them wear red shirts and spend part of their day watching over something. It also helps to hire butlers that are two weeks shy of retirement (but do remember to get them to announce this fact).
Well, from what I hear, if you get into a car wreck with someone and don’t have insurance, you can be forced to become their butler.
don’t some state governors keep “well-appointed” mansions? at least that’s what i gathered when i watched a miss teen USA pageant (she recounted her visit to the gov’s mansion.)
The proper term is buttress.
