A butler in the White House Butler's Pantry.

A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its appearance.^[1] A butler is usually male,^[2] and in charge of male servants, while a housekeeper is usually a woman, and in charge of female servants. Traditionally, male servants (such as footmen) were better paid and therefore rarer and of higher status than female servants. The butler, as the senior male servant, has the highest servant status.

In modern houses where the butler is the most senior worker, titles such as majordomo, butler administrator, house manager, manservant, staff manager, chief of staff, staff captain, estate manager and head of household staff are sometimes given. The precise duties of the employee will vary to some extent in line with the title given, but perhaps more importantly in line with the requirements of the individual employer. In the grandest homes or when the employer owns more than one residence, there is sometimes an estate manager of higher rank than the butler.

Background[link]

The word "butler" derives from the Old French bouteleur (cup bearer), from bouteille, (bottle), and ultimately from Latin. The role of the butler, for centuries, has been that of the chief steward of a household, the attendant entrusted with the care and serving of wine and other bottled beverages which in ancient times might have represented a considerable portion of the household's assets.

In Britain, the butler was originally a middle ranking member of the staff of a grand household. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the butler gradually became the usually senior male member of a household's staff in the very grandest households, though there was sometimes a steward who ran the outside estate and financial affairs, rather than just the household, and who was senior to the butler in social status into the 19th century. Butlers used to always be attired in a special uniform, distinct from the livery of junior servants, but today a butler is more likely to wear a business suit or business casual clothing and appear in uniform only on special occasions.

A Silverman or Silver Butler has expertise and professional knowledge of the management, secure storage, use and cleaning of all silverware, associated tableware and other paraphernalia for use at military and other special functions. See also Silver (household).

Origin and history[link]

The modern role of the butler has evolved from earlier roles that were generally concerned with the care and serving of alcoholic beverages.

Ancient through medieval eras[link]

From ancient through medieval times, alcoholic beverages were chiefly stored first in earthenware vessels, then later in wooden barrels, rather than in glass bottles; these containers would have been an important part of a household's possessions. The care of these assets was therefore generally reserved for trusted slaves, although the job could also go to free persons because of heredity-based class lines or the inheritance of trades.

The biblical book of Genesis contains a reference to a role precursive to modern butlers. The early Hebrew Joseph interpreted a dream of Pharaoh's שקה (shaqah) (literally "to give to drink"), which is most often translated into English as "chief butler" or "chief cup-bearer".^[3]

In ancient Greece and Rome, it was nearly always slaves who were charged with the care and service of wine, while during the Medieval Era the pincerna, usually a serf, filled the role within the noble court. The English word "butler" itself derives from the Middle English word boteler (and several other forms), from Old French bouteillier ("bottle bearer"), and before that from Medieval Latin butticula. "Butticula", in turn, came down to English as "butt" from the Latin buttis, meaning a large cask. The modern English "butler" thus relates both to bottles and casks.

Eventually the European butler emerged as a middle-ranking member of the servants of a great house, in charge of the buttery (originally a storeroom for "butts" of liquor, although the term later came to mean a general storeroom or pantry).^[4] While this is so for household butlers, those with the same title but in service to the Crown enjoyed a position of administrative power and were only minimally involved with various stores.

In a large house, the butler (centre-left) is traditionally head over a full array of household servants. This is the servant staff at the Stonehouse Hill of Massachusetts, the estate of F. Lothrop Ames, 1914.

Elizabethan through Victorian eras[link]

The Steward of the Elizabethan era was more akin to the butler that later emerged.^[5] Gradually, throughout the 19th century and particularly the Victorian era, as the number of butlers and other domestic servants greatly increased in various countries (including America), the butler became a senior male servant of a household's staff. By this time he was in charge of the more modern wine cellar, the "buttery" or pantry (from French pan from Latin panis, bread) as it came to be called, which supplied bread, butter, cheese, and other basic provisions, and the ewery, which contained napkins and basins for washing and shaving.^[6] In the very grandest households there was sometimes an Estate Steward or other senior steward who oversaw the butler and his duties.^[7] Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, a manual published in Britain in 1861, reported:

The number of the male domestics in a family varies according to the wealth and position of the master, from the owner of the ducal mansion, with a retinue of attendants, at the head of which is the chamberlain and house-steward, to the occupier of the humbler house, where a single footman, or even the odd man-of-all-work, is the only male retainer. The majority of gentlemen's establishments probably comprise a servant out of livery, or butler, a footman, and coachman, or coachman and groom, where the horses exceed two or three.^[8]

Glanusk Park in Powys County, U.K., in 1891. The residence had 17 servants in residence. The largest stately houses could have 40 or more.

Butlers were head of a strict service hierarchy and therein held a position of power and respect. They were more managerial than "hands on"—more so than serving, they officiated in service. For example, although the butler was at the door to greet and announce the arrival of a formal guest, the door was actually opened by a footman, who would receive the guest's hat and coat. Even though the butler helped his employer into his coat, this had been handed to him by a footman. However, even the highest-ranking butler would "pitch in" when necessary, such as during a staff shortage, to ensure that the household ran smoothly, although some evidence suggests this was so even during normal times.^[9]

The household itself was generally divided into areas of responsibility. The butler was in charge of the dining room, the wine cellar, pantry, and sometimes the entire main floor. Directly under the butler was the first footman (or head footman), who was also deputy butler or under-butler that would fill in as butler during the butler's illness or absence. The footman—there were frequently numerous young men in the role within a household—performed a range of duties including serving meals, attending doors, carrying or moving heavy items, and they often doubled as valets. Valets themselves performed a variety of personal duties for their employer. Butlers engaged and directed all these junior staff and each reported directly to him. The housekeeper was in charge of the house as a whole and its appearance. In a household without an official head housekeeper, female servants and kitchen staff were also directly under the butler's management, while in smaller households, the butler usually doubled as valet. Employers and their children and guests addressed the butler by last name alone; fellow servants, retainers, and tradespersons as "Mr. [Surname]".

Butlers were typically hired by the master of the house but usually reported to its lady. Beeton in her manual suggested a GBP 25 - 50 (USD 2,675 - 5,350) per-year salary for butlers; room and board and livery clothing were additional benefits, and tipping known as vails, were common.^[10] The few butlers who were married had to make separate housing arrangements for their families, as did all other servants within the hierarchy.

Butlers in early America[link]

From the beginning of slavery in America, in the early 17th century, African Americans were put to task as domestic servants. Some eventually became butlers. Gary Puckrein, a social historian, argues that those used in particularly affluent homes authentically internalised the sorts of "refined" norms and personal attributes that would reflect highly upon the social stature of their masters or mistresses. One of the first books written and published through a commercial U.S. publisher by an African American was by a butler named Robert Roberts. The book, The House Servant's Directory,^[11] first published in 1827, is essentially a manual for butlers and waiters, and is called by Puckrein "the most remarkable book by an African American in antebellum America". The book generated such interest that a second edition was published in 1828, and a third in 1843.^[12]

European indentured servants formed a corps of domestic workers from which butlers were eventually drawn. Although not the victims of institutionalised slavery, many of them had not volunteered for domestic service, but were forced into it by indebtedness or coercion. As with African American slaves, they could rise in domestic service, and their happiness or misery depended greatly on the disposition of their masters.

The modern butler[link]

Beginning around the early 1920s (following World War I), employment in domestic service occupations began a sharp overall decline in western European countries, and even more markedly in the United States. Even so, there were still around 30,000 butlers employed in Britain by World War II. As few as one-hundred were estimated to remain by the mid-1980s.^[13] Social historian Barry Higman argues that a high number of domestic workers within a society correlates with a high level of socio-economic inequality. Conversely, as a society undergoes levelling among its social classes, the number employed in domestic service declines.^[14]

Following varied shifts and changes accompanying accelerated globalisation beginning in the late 1980s, overall global demand for butlers since the turn of the millennium has risen dramatically. According to Charles MacPherson, vice chairman of the International Guild of Professional Butlers, the proximate cause is that the number of millionaires and billionaires has increased in recent years, and such people are finding that they desire assistance in managing their households. MacPherson emphasises that the number of wealthy people in China have increased particularly, creating in that country a high demand for professional butlers who have been trained in the European butlering tradition.^[15] There is also increasing demand for such butlers in other Asian countries, India, and the petroleum-rich Middle East.^[16][17]

Higman additionally argues that the inequality/equality levels of societies are a major determinant of the nature of the domestic servant/employer relationship.^[18] As the 21st century approached, many butlers began carrying out an increasing number of duties formerly reserved for more junior household servants. Butlers today may be called upon to do whatever household and personal duties their employers deem fitting, in the goal of freeing their employers to carry out their own personal and professional affairs. Professional butler and author Steven M. Ferry states that the image of tray-wielding butlers who specialise in serving tables and decanting wine is now anachronistic, and that employers may well be more interested in a butler who is capable of managing a full array of household affairs—from providing the traditional dinner service, to acting as valet, to managing high-tech systems and multiple homes with complexes of staff. Whilst in truly grand houses the modern butler may still function exclusively as a top-ranked household affairs manager,^[19] in lesser homes, such as those of dual-income middle-class professionals,^[17] they perform a full array of household and personal assistant duties,^[20] including mundane housekeeping.^[21] Butlers today may also be situated within corporate settings, embassies, cruise ships, yachts, or within their own small "Rent-a-Butler" business or similar agency.^[22]

Along with these changes of scope and context, butlering attire has changed. Whereas butlers have traditionally worn a special uniform that separated them from junior servants, and although this is still often the case, butlers today may adorn more casual clothing geared for climate, while exchanging it for formal business attire only upon special service occasions. There are cultural distinctivenesses, as well. In the United States, butlers may frequently don a polo shirt and slacks, while in Bali they typically wear sarongs.^[23]

In 2007, the number of butlers in Britain had risen to an estimated 5,000.^[24]

Training[link]

Butlers traditionally learned their position while progressing their way up the service ladder. For example, in the documentary The Authenticity of Gosford Park, retired butler Arthur Inch (born 1915) describes starting as a hall boy.^[25] Whilst this is still often the case, numerous private butlering schools exist today, such as The British Butler Institute, the International Institute of Modern Butlers, the Guild of Professional English Butlers, and The International Guild of Butlers & Household Managers; top graduates can start at US$50,000-60,000 (£25,350-30,400).^[26] Additionally, major up-market hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton offer traditional butler training, while some hotels have trained a sort of pseudo-butler for service in defined areas such as "technology butlers", who fix guests' computers and other electronic devices, and "bath butlers" who draw custom baths.^[27][28][29]

Starkey International distinguishes between the "British butler" prototype and its American counterpart, often dubbed the "household manager". Starkey states that they train and promote the latter, believing that Americans do not have the "servant mentality" that is part of the British Butler tradition. They stress that their American-style butlers and valets are educated and certified,^[30] although some students, numerous former Starkey employees, and several wealthy clients have criticised the programme and its owner.^[31] Magnums Butlers, a school based in Australia, conducts training after the British model at sites in Asia and the Pacific, Australia, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.^[32] The International Institute of Modern Butlers provides on-site training in various places around the world as well as via correspondence. In 2007, City & Guilds, the U.K.'s largest awarder of vocational credentials, introduced a diploma programme for butlers.^[33]

In addition to formal training, a few books have been published recently to assist butlers in their duties, including Arthur Inch's and Arlene Hirst's 2003 Dinner is Served. Moreover, websites, as well as a news publication, Modern Butlers' Journal, help butlers to network and keep abreast of developments within their field.

Ferry argues that what he calls a "butler mindset" is beneficial to all people within all professions. He states that an attitude of devoted service to others, deference, and the keeping of confidences can help all people succeed.

Gender and butlering[link]

Butlers have traditionally been male, and this remains the norm. Probably the first mention of a female butler is in the 1892 book Interludes being Two Essays, a Story, and Some Verses by Horace Smith. In it Smith quotes a certain Sydney Smith who had apparently run into lean times:

A man servant was too expensive, so I caught up a little garden girl, made like a milestone, christened her Bunch, put a napkin in her hand, and made her my butler. The girls taught her to read, Mrs. Sydney to wait, and I undertook her morals. Bunch became the best butler in the country.^[34]

Today, female butlers are sometimes preferred,^[35] especially for work within Middle and Far Eastern families where it may be religiously problematic for males to work closely with females in a household.^[36] Western female celebrities may also prefer a female butler,^[37] as may households where the wife is driving the decision to hire a butler.^[17] In 2004, Buckingham Palace announced it was actively recruiting females for the position.^[38] Despite these trends, the Ivor Spencer School asserts that female butlers are not easily placed, on the whole.

In ancient times, the roles precursive to butlering were reserved for chattel or those confined within heredity-based class structures. With the advent of the medieval era, butlering became an opportunity for social advancement—even more so during Victorian times. Although still based upon various antecedent roles as manifested during different eras, butlering today has frequently taken over many of the roles formerly reserved for lower ranking domestic servants. At the same time it has become a potentially lucrative career option.^[39]

Historically important butlers[link]

• Paul Burrell, butler to Diana, Princess of Wales
• Ivor Spencer, toastmaster and etiquette specialist, head of the Ivor Spencer International School for Butler Administrators/Personal Assistants and Estate Managers
• Leslie Bartlett, butler, toastmaster and founder of The London School of British Butlers.

Alonzo Fields[link]

Alonzo Fields

Page from Alonzo Fields's personal papers. This one describes his conduction of a service-event that resulted in Truman's decision to enter the Korean War.

By nature of their position and its requisite staunch discretion, it is exceptional when a butler achieves historical importance. One butler who did is Alonzo Fields (1899–1993), who served as a White House butler for twenty-one years, all but his first year as chief butler, under presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower. After his retirement in 1960, Fields published My 21 Years in the White House, in which he wove together his private papers and cryptic journals, written while serving, with his recollections. Although restrained, his memoir nonetheless provides a uniquely intimate primary source account of the U.S. presidents he served, several who came to trust Fields as a close personal friend. Fields reports, for example, that he was present when Roosevelt was first informed of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and that Roosevelt "broke down completely" during that moment, and also emoted racial slurs against the Japanese before gaining control. Truman was especially close with Fields and even related with him as an emotional confidant at times, and the two at one point sat together for a portrait.

When Fields began his tenure at the White House, senators from the U.S. South frequently addressed him with the racially condescending term "boy", and an obvious racial hierarchy existed between white and black White House house staff, with whites dominating. Whilst the attitudes of most southern U.S. senators would not begin to change until the advent of U.S. Civil Rights Movement, Roosevelt took it upon himself to remove racial tensions among the house staff by making it all black.^[40][41][42]

More than a decade after Fields's death in 1994, his story was cast into a one-man theatrical performance, Looking Over the President's Shoulder.^[43][44] Historians, such as David McCullough in his 2003 biography Truman, continue to consult Fields's memoirs when constructing accounts of the presidents he served.^[45]

Surname[link]

As a surname, “Butler” was originated by Theobald le Botiller FitzWalter (Lord of Preston). Lord FitzWalter accompanied King John to Ireland to help secure Norman areas. When men whom Walter led killed Dermot MacCarthy, prince of Desmond, Walter was granted land holdings of Baggotrath, County Dublin, and the Stein River lands around what is now Trinity College Dublin. He was also given an important fief, on which Walter both founded an abbey and established his Irish seat. Upon returning to England, King John endowed Walter with the hereditary office "Butler to the Lord of Ireland" in 1177; some evidence indicates that he was also dubbed "Butler of Ireland". As such, he had the right to pour the King's wine. This title can be defined as Governor by today's standards. His son, Theobalde Butler, was the first to hold the name and pass it to his descendants. Walter's grandson was James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde.^[46] Kilkenny Castle was the main seat of the Butler family.

In visual art[link]

Heads of Six of Hogarth's Servants

Butlers have been occasionally depicted in visual art. A famous painting, Heads of Six of Hogarth's Servants (c. 1758), is unique among such works. In it, the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth depicted his household servants, each surrounding the butler. In showing the group in a close-knit assemblage rather than in the performance of their routine household duties, Hogarth sought to humanise and dignify them in a manner akin to wealthy-class members, who were the normal subjects of such portraits. Whilst this was a subversive act that certainly raised many eyebrows in his day—Hogarth conspicuously displayed the work in his estate home in full view of guests—at the same time he had painted his servants' facial expressions to convey the sincerity and deference expected of servant-class members.^[47]

In contemporary art, "The Butler's in Love" series by U.S. artist Mark Stock is especially poignant. In the series, Stock portrays the butler as sick with love, but the possibility of fulfillment is hopeless: the love is a forbidden love, perhaps felt for the lady of the house, and so it must be suffered alone in silent hiddenness. In addition to the ongoing mannerisms and facial expressions of the butler, a seated lady once-appearing in a curtained room and a recurring lipstick-stained absinthe glass over which the butler obsesses provide the interpretive clues. In selecting a butler as his subject, Stock sought to provide a "universal character", a pathos-laden figuration that could be widely related to and that could depict the universality of loneliness felt by someone who can only look in from the outside. Stock began the series in 1985 to express his difficult feelings during a personal experience of unrequited love. One of the paintings was inspiration for a 3-D short film, "The Butler's in Love" by actor/director David Arquette, shot in 2008 at San Francisco's historic Westerfield Mansion.^[48][49][50]

In fiction[link]

The real-life modern butler attempts to be discreet and unobtrusive, friendly but not familiar, keenly anticipative of the needs of his or her employer, and graceful and precise in execution of duty. The butler of fiction, by contrast, often tends to be larger-than-life and has become a plot device in literature and a traditional role in the performing arts. Butlers may provide comic relief with wry comments, clues as to the perpetrators of various crimes and are represented as at least as intelligent and moral, or even more so, than their “betters”. They are often portrayed as being serious and expressionless and in the case that the wealthy hero be an orphan—such as Batman, Chrono Crusade's Satella Harvenheit, or Tomb Raider's Lara Croft—be a father figure to said hero. Regardless of the genre in which they are cast, butlers in fiction almost invariably follow the "British butler" model and are given an appropriate-sounding surname. The fictional butler tends to be given a typical Anglo-Celtic surname and have an English accent. The Asian, African American, or Caribbean houseboy is a variant, but even these major-domos are based on the British icon.

Today, butlers are usually portrayed as being refined and well-spoken. However, in 19th century fiction such as Dracula, butlers generally spoke with a strong Cockney or other regional accent.

"The butler" is integral to the plot of countless potboilers and melodramas, whether or not the character has been given a name. Butlers figure so prominently in period pieces and whodunits that they can be considered stock characters in film and theatre where a catchphrase is "the butler did it!"

The best-known fictional manservant, and the prototype of the quintessential British butler, is himself not a butler at all. Reginald Jeeves, the iconic creation of author P. G. Wodehouse is a "gentleman's gentleman" and general factotum. Probably the best-known fictional butlers are Alfred from the Batman comic and films; Hudson of Upstairs, Downstairs television fame; and, Crichton from J. M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton. Lesser-knowns include Mr. Belvedere from the novel Belvedere, which was adapted into a feature film with sequels and later a television series; Lurch, from the television series The Addams Family, based on Charles Addams' The New Yorker cartoons; Beach, from the Wodehouse series about Blandings Castle; Niles, the butler at the Sheffield house in American sitcom The Nanny, and Benson from the two series Soap and Benson.

Not all fictional butlers portray the "butler stereotype", however. Alan Bates, who played the butler Jennings in the film Gosford Park, was coached in brooding detail by Arthur Inch, a longtime real-life butler.^[51] Mr. Stevens, the butler played by Anthony Hopkins in the film Remains of the Day, was also acted with remarkable realism. A female butler, Sarah Stevens, is the principal character in Linda Howard's 2002 Dying to Please, a murder/romance novel. Howard gives detailed and generally accurate descriptions of butlering in the work.^[52]

In Eoin Colfer's successful Artemis Fowl series, first released in 2001, the term "Butler" took on a more family tradition. Following the fictional butler stereotype, Domovoi Butler (manservant to master Fowl) inherits the term "butler" from his family's last name. Not surprisingly, the Butler family have served as actual servants and bodyguards to important figures throughout history in the Colfer's fictional world; all of which attended Madame Ko's Bodyguard Academy.

Examples[link]

• Mr. Stevens, the protagonist of Kazuo Ishiguro's Booker Prize winning novel, The Remains of the Day and movie of the same name.
• Angus Hudson, from the television show Upstairs, Downstairs.
• Edmund Blackadder, butler to Prince George the Prince Regent, in the TV Series Blackadder the Third.
• Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler from Batman is a well known fictional butler.
• Benson DuBois, the Tate butler in the hit 1970's sitcom, Soap
• Geoffrey Butler, the butler for the Banks Family on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
• James La Croix, the butler of Montgomery Mason appearing in the sitcom Home, James.
• Nestor, the butler of Marlinspike Hall appearing in The Adventures of Tintin.
• Niles the butler in the TV Series The Nanny.
• Wadsworth, the protagonist in the movie Clue.
• Sebastian Michaelis, a demon disguised as an extremely handsome man bound by contract to his young British master, Ciel Phantomhive, in the Black Butler Manga and Anime series.
  • Also from the same series is Claude Faustus. Like Sebastian, he is a demon bound by contract to his master, Alois Trancy.
• Sebastian Beach, from the Blandings Castle stories by P. G. Wodehouse, of intimidating majesty but nonetheless a good soul who frequently co-conspires with the clever Gally Threepwood.
• Butler, the butler for Prince Salde Canarl Shellbrick III off of the puzzle game Puyo Puyo Fever 2.
• Smithers, Veronica Lodge's fictional butler.
• Domovoi Butler, butler (and bodyguard) in the Artemis Fowl series novels by Eoin Colfer.
• Spencer, butler in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive
• Pickering, a bullying, slave-driving butler who was the regular villain of the piece in No Tears for Molly from Tammy, a British comic which ran from 1971 to 1984.
• Hugh Edgar, butler, The Edwardian Country House, 2002 British historical recreation TV series
• Cadbury, butler to Richie Rich
• Higgins, from the sitcom Our Man Higgins and the radio comedy on which it was based, It's Higgins, Sir, which revolve around his character
• Underling, the butler in the 2006 Broadway Musical The Drowsy Chaperone
• The titular protagonist of Hayate the Combat Butler
• Butler Seo / Johann Seo, butler-turned-lover to Lady Kang Hae Na of My Fair Lady
• Mr Carson, butler to the Crawley family in Downton Abbey

See also[link]

• Housekeeper
• Valet
• Domestic worker
• Silverman
• Household

References[link]

1. ^ Post, Emily (2007). Emily Post's Etiquette. Echo Library. ISBN 1-4068-1215-3. 
2. ^ http://www.butlersguild.com/index.php?subject=5
3. ^ Genesis 39-40.
4. ^ This was most likely from a loss of the original Latin meaning and the mistaken belief that buttery related to "butter".
5. ^ Lord Montague's Book of Rules and Orders, 1595.
6. ^ Nancy Scanlon (2006). "The Development of the Kitchen in the English Country House 1315–1864". Journal of Culinary Science and Technology 4 (2/3): 79–92. 
7. ^ Beeton, Isabella (1861) (2000). Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. Oxford University Press. pp. 393. ISBN 0-19-283345-6. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=89404824. 
8. ^ Beeton (1861), 393.
9. ^ Carrolyn Steedman, "The servant’s labour: the business of life, England, 1760–1820", Social History, Vol. 29 No. 1, (Feb., 2004).
10. ^ D. Marshall, "The Domestic Servants of the Eighteenth Century", Economica, No. 25, (Apr., 1929), pp. 15–40. Available online with subscription.
11. ^ http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/books/book_05.cfm
12. ^ Gary Puckrein (Oct/Nov 98). "The Science of Service". American Visions 13 (5). 
13. ^ J. Lee (1988). "Steady, Jeeves—you've got company!". U.S. News & World Report 104 (17). 
14. ^ Higman, Barry (2002). Domestic Service in Australia. Melbourne University Publishing. ISBN 0-522-85011-1. 
15. ^ Scott Simon (10 Feb 2007). "By Jeeves, We're Having a Butler Shortage—Interview with Charles MacPherson" (Streaming Audio). Weekend Edition Saturday. NPR News. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7338550. Retrieved 2007-08-13.  Also see Sheelah Kolhatka, "Inside the Billionaire Service Industry". The Atlantic, Sept 2006, 97-101. Archived by WebCite.
16. ^ See for example Chadha, Monica. "Royal tips for Indian butlers", BBC News, 17 Feb 2003. Available online. Archived by WebCite.
17. ^ ^{a b c} "Butlers: A Jeeves of my very own", The Daily Telegraph, 15 Nov 2007. Available online. Archived by WebCite.
18. ^ Higman (2002).
19. ^ Ferry, Steven M. Butlers & Household Managers: 21st Century Professionals. BookSurge Publishing. pp. 14. ISBN 1-59109-306-6. 
20. ^ William Loeffler (15 April 2007). "The butler does it". The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Lifestyle. 
21. ^ James Woodford (October 5, 2002). "Move over, Jeeves, a new breed of butler is working her way up". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 2007-08-13. http://www.webcitation.org/5R4MfrgUq.  Elizabeth Camille, a butler in Sydney, states, "I still make beds, clean toilets and peg out washing.... It's not all as glamorous as people perceive it to be." Additionally see "Desperately seeking Jeeves", The Globe and Mail (Canada), 20 July 2007. Lynda Reeves, president of the Toronto-based House & Home Media, says that the term "butler" today is just "a pretentious name for a housekeeper".
22. ^ Jones, Harvey. "More money than time? Rent a butler". The Independent (UK), 15 Dec 2001. Available online. Archived by WebCite. Also see http://www.rentabutler.de and http://www.rentabutler.nl/.
23. ^ Patrao, Michael. "The alter ago of Jeeves". The Deccan Herald, 27 July 2007. Available online. Archived by WebCite.
24. ^ Sapstead, David. "Shortage of Butlers Has World's Wealthy Facing a Crisis", New York Sun, 30 May 2007. Available online. Archived by WebCite.
25. ^ The Authenticity of Gosford Park, Documentary featurette in Gosford Park Collector's Edition DVD, Universal Studios, 2002.
26. ^ Simon (10 Feb 2007).
27. ^ Witchel (2000). "At Hotels, the Butlers Are Doing It". New York Times 149 (51486): 2.  Ferry, as quoted in "Desperately seeking Jeeves", The Globe and Mail (Canada), 20 July 2007, was quoted as saying that hotel butlers are not rooted in the European tradition of butlering. He states that some hotels essentially rename their pool attendants as "pool butlers" and this is not a real butler so much as a marketing gimmick.
28. ^ Rouvalis, Cristina. "Butler provides the perfect pampering", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6 May 2007. Available online. Archived by WebCite.
29. ^ Hotels are rated by the International Institute of Modern Butlers according to their butler service offerings, which can range from the one-on-one personalized butler (a 5-Butler rating) to the "pool butler (a 0-Butler rating). See http://www.modernbutlers.com/html/butler-rating-system.html
30. ^ Starkey does lay claim to understanding the British butler tradition; however, her general approach seems to be that American domestic staff are better suited to American families.
31. ^ Joel Warner (9 Aug 2007). "At Your Disservice". Denver Westword News. http://www.westword.com/2007-08-09/news/at-your-disservice.  Archived by WebCite.
32. ^ See Magnums Butlers, accessed 12/31/2007. Archived by WebCite.
33. ^ See http://www.cityandguilds.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-7D78108B-8F23F7DA/cgonline/hs.xsl/12341.html
34. ^ Smith, Horace; Joel Lehtonen (translator) (1892). Interludes being Two Essays, a Story, and Some Verses. MacMillan & Co. ISBN 1-4069-1965-9. Available online (full text). Archived by WebCite.
35. ^ James Woodford (October 5, 2002). "Move over, Jeeves, a new breed of butler is working her way up". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 2007-08-13. http://www.webcitation.org/5R4MfrgUq. 
36. ^ See "Unique Rosewood Ladies Floor could start trend in Saudi, Middle East Hotels", 12 Oct 2007. Available online. Archived by WebCite. Also, for interesting background see Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village. Anchor, 1995. ISBN 0-385-01485-6.
37. ^ See The International Guild of Professional Butlers, accessed 12/31/2007. Archived by WebCite.
38. ^ Milne, Meg. "The Royal butlerettes", The Financial Mail, 31 Oct 2004. Available online. Archived by WebCite.
39. ^ In Loeffler (15 April 2007), Nathalie Laitmon of The Calendar Group in Stamford, Connecticut, states that skilled butlers within the grandest households can make USD 200,000 (GBP 101,500). She states, "The bigger the lifestyle of the family, the more they can earn".
40. ^ Fields, Alonzo. My 21 years in the White House, New York: Coward-McCann, 1960.
41. ^ Sam Stiegler, "When Speaking About Me, 'Don’t Talk too Long and Don’t Tell the Truth': A Biography of Mr. Alonzo Fields (1900–1994), West Medford Afro-American Remembrance Project, 2005. Available online. Archived by WebCite.
42. ^ U.S. News & World Report, "Alonzo Fields diary, Truman's butler", 16 July 2007. Available online. Archived by WebCite.
43. ^ Burlingham Ellis, Caroline. "Review of 'Looking Over the President's Shoulder'", Theatre Mania, 8 Dec 2003. Available online. Archived by WebCite.
44. ^ Bales-Sherrod, Lesli. "Serving up a slice of history", The American Observer, Vol. 9, No. 3, 24 Feb 2004. Available online. Archived by WebCite.
45. ^ McCullough, David. Truman, Simon & Schuster, pp 472, 473, 502, 623, 931. ISBN 0-7432-6029-5.
46. ^ "Butler", Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911 edition. Available online. Also see The Carey Estate BCM/H [n.d.], Berkeley Castle Muniments, U.K. National Archives, available online. Archived by WebCite.; National Archive Record MS 613, f. 21; National Archive Record MS 613, f. 30.
47. ^ Waterfield G., A. French and M. Craske, Eds. (2003). Below stairs, 400 years of servants' portraits. London: National Portrait Gallery. ISBN 1-85514-512-X. 
48. ^ Croft, Karen. "Butlers in Love", Salon, 24 May 2001. Available online: Page 1, Page 2, Archive 1, Archive 2.
49. ^ Stock, Mark. Correspondence with Stephen Ewen, stephenewen.org. Also see http://www.theworldofmarkstock.com.
50. ^ Garchik, Leah. San Francisco Chronicle, 14 May 2008. Available online. Archived by WebCite. Also see http://www.wayfaring.com/waypts/show/32050 for a brief history of the mansion.
51. ^ "The man who got it right for Gosford Park and told Richard E Grant what was wrong", Mid Sussex Times, 2002. Available online. Archived by WebCite. Also see The Authenticity of Gosford Park.
52. ^ For a synopsis of Howard's book, see http://www1.epinions.com/content_64617352836.

• This article incorporates material from the Citizendium article "Butler", which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License but not under the GFDL.
• This article incorporates material from "A Brief History of Butlers and Butlering" by Stephen Ewen, which is licensed under the Creative Common Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Further reading[link]

• Cyrus Redding Every Man His Own Butler. London: Whittaker & Co., 1839 OCLC 25057151

Caron Butler

Butler during his tenure with the Wizards
No. 5 – Los Angeles Clippers
Small Forward
Personal information
Born	(1980-03-13) March 13, 1980 (age 32) Racine, Wisconsin
Nationality	American
High school	Washington Park (Racine, Wisconsin) Maine Central Institute (Pittsfield, Maine)
Listed height	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Listed weight	228 lb (103 kg)
Career information
College	Connecticut (2000–2002)
NBA Draft	2002 / Round: 1 / Pick: 10th overall
Selected by the Miami Heat
Pro career	2002–present
Career history
2002–2004	Miami Heat
2004–2005	Los Angeles Lakers
2005–2010	Washington Wizards
2010–2011	Dallas Mavericks
2011–present	Los Angeles Clippers
Career highlights and awards
NBA Champion (2011) 2× NBA All-Star (2007–2008) NBA All-Rookie First Team (2003) Big East Player of the Year (2002)
Stats at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals Men’s basketball Competitor for  United States FIBA U21 World Championship Gold 2001 Saitama Team competition

James Caron Butler, widely known as Caron Butler (born March 13, 1980), is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA.

Early life[link]

Butler was born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin, where he suffered through a rough childhood; he was a drug dealer at age 11 and arrested 15 times before the age of 15.^[1] Caron discovered his love for basketball while at the detention center.^[2] Butler played in AAU basketball in '98 and '99.^[3] After a brief career at Washington Park High School,^[4] he enrolled at Maine Central Institute where he was successful enough to receive a scholarship to play at UConn for coach Jim Calhoun for two years.

Personal life[link]

He lives in Centreville, Virginia with his wife, Andrea, and daughter, Mia. He has another daughter, Camary, and son, Caron Jr., who live in Racine. He has a habit of chewing on straws which he picked up back in AAU ball in '98 or '99.^[3] His straws of choice are from McDonald's.^[3]

Butler attended a surprise birthday party for Anthony Fadel, a 16-year-old in the Washington, D.C. area when invited by the boy's family.^[5] The party was held in May 2007, and the event was primarily reported by Internet blogs, since Wizards PR purposely did not cover the event to preserve the sincerity of Butler's gesture.^[6]

After working at Burger King in his youth, Butler now owns 6 of the fast food restaurants across the US.^[7] He is currently taking Business Management classes at Duke as well.^[7]

College career[link]

At Connecticut, Butler lost 15 pounds off his frame and developed his perimeter game. As a freshman, Butler led the Huskies, only two years removed from a National Championship, in both scoring and rebounding with 15.6 points per game and 7.6 rebounds per game respectively.^[8] The summer after his freshman season he started for the US team that took home gold in the 2001 FIBA World Championship for Young Men.^[9]

Butler followed his spectacular rookie campaign with an even better sophomore season. Butler averaged 20.3 points per game and 7.5 rebounds per game as a sophomore leading the Huskies to both regular season and tournament Big East titles. He was named co-Big East player of the year (along with Pittsburgh's Brandin Knight) and a second-team All American.^[10] Butler led the Huskies to the Elite 8 of the NCAA basketball tournament. Despite 32 points from Butler, the Huskies lost a close game to eventual national champion Maryland Terrapins.^[10] After the season Butler declared for the NBA draft.

NBA career[link]

Butler defends former teammate Kobe Bryant

Butler was a lottery pick in the 2002 NBA Draft, selected with the 10th overall pick by the Miami Heat. He is remembered for his comments on draft day after nine teams passed over him, saying that he was going to make them pay for the rest of his career.^{[citation needed]} In his first season with the Heat, he averaged 15 points and 5 rebounds per game, though during his injury-hampered second season his averages fell slightly to 9 points and 4 rebounds during in 68 games. At the end of the season, the Heat traded Butler, Lamar Odom, and Brian Grant to the Lakers for Shaquille O'Neal, with whom the Heat won their first championship in the NBA Finals.

Before the 2005–06 season, the Lakers traded Butler and Chucky Atkins to the Washington Wizards for Kwame Brown and Laron Profit. Butler later signed a 5-year, $46 million dollar deal with the team. He became part of Washington's new "Big 3", a trio made up of teammates Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison. Butler was nicknamed "Tough Juice"^[11] by coach Eddie Jordan for his aggressive and passionate play,^[12] epitomized by Butler's 20 rebounds in the Game 6 loss of opening-round series against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

On January 17, 2007, Butler converted his first game-winning basket, a dunk following a pass from DeShawn Stevenson with 2.2 seconds remaining against the Knicks to give the Wizards a 99–98 win.^[13] Butler was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for January 15–21, 2007.^[14] He would have his best season yet, posting career high averages in rebounds, assists, and points. He was also named as a reserve to the 2007 NBA Eastern Conference All-Star team, his first appearance.^[15] However, he broke his hand late in the season attempting to block a shot and was forced to sit out during the playoffs along with the injured Gilbert Arenas as the Wizards were swept in their opening round rematch versus the Cavaliers.

Butler, who was sidelined with a hip injury, was selected as a reserve for the East in the 2008 NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans, Louisiana but was forced to sit out. Due to the injury, Butler missed 20 of the Wizards' last 35 games of the season. He returned to the lineup on March 13 (his 28th birthday), when the Wizards hosted the Cavaliers. He registered 19 points (8-for-18 field goals) five rebounds in 41 minutes played in the Wizards' 101–99 win over the Cavs.^[16]

On February 13, 2010 Butler was traded to the Dallas Mavericks along with Brendan Haywood and Deshawn Stevenson for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton, and Quinton Ross. The Mavericks would qualify for the 2010 NBA Playoffs as the second seed in the Western Conference, but would be upset in six games by the San Antonio Spurs. On January 4, 2011, it was announced that Butler would undergo surgery on his knee and would miss the rest of the season.^[17] The Dallas Mavericks dedicated their 2011 playoff run to him, and won the 2011 NBA Finals.

On December 9, 2011, Butler signed a three-year, $24 million deal with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Career transactions[link]

• June 26, 2002: Drafted 10th overall by Miami Heat in 2002 NBA Draft.
• July 14, 2004: Traded by Miami along with Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, a future first-round draft pick and a future second-round draft pick to the Los Angeles Lakers for Shaquille O'Neal.^[18]
• August 2, 2005: Traded by L.A. Lakers along with Chucky Atkins to the Washington Wizards for Kwame Brown and Laron Profit.^[19]
• February 13, 2010: Traded to the Dallas Mavericks along with Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton, and Quinton Ross^[20]
• December 9, 2011: Signed with the Los Angeles Clippers.

NBA career statistics[link]

Regular season[link]

Playoffs[link]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• NBA.com Profile - Profile at NBA.com
• Basketball-Reference.com: Caron Butler
• Yahoo! Sports Profile at Yahoo!
• http://www.caronbutlersummercamp.com/