bellboy n : someone employed as an errand boy and luggage carrier around hotels [syn: bellman, bellhop]

English

Pronunciation

Noun

1. A servant, usually at a hotel, who carries luggage. Feminine equivalent: bellgirl.

Translations

A bellhop, also bellboy (pronunciation) or bellman, is a hotel porter, who helps patrons with their luggage while checking in or out. They often wear a uniform (see Bell-boy hat), like certain other page boys or doormen.

The job's name is derived from the fact that the hotel's front desk would ring a bell to summon an available employee, who would "hop" (jump) to attention at the desk in order to receive instructions. Historically, this employee traditionally was a boy or adolescent male who may have been otherwise unskilled but able to carry luggage; hence the term bellboy. Today's bellman must be quick witted, a good conversationalist, charismatic, outgoing, and understand the basics of human psychology to better customize each guest's experience. Duties that are often included in this job are opening the front door, moving luggage, valeting cars, calling cabs, transporting guests, giving directions, basic concierge work, and responding to any of the guest needs. In many countries such as the United States, it customary to tip such an employee for their service.

This position can also be held by a woman today, with the progression of equality in the workplace. The term "bellhop" is much less gender specific than "bellman" or "bellboy".

Famous bellhops

• Ted Serios was a Chicago bellhop, who gained notoriety in the 1960s by producing "thoughtographs" on Polaroid film, which he claimed were produced using psychic powers.

Popular references

The bellhop character is very common in popular culture, having been referenced in a number of occasions, such as the following:

• Bughouse Bellhops is a 1915 short comedy film featuring Harold Lloyd.

• Hop, the Bellhop is a 1919 film featuring Oliver Hardy.

• The 1929 Marx Brothers musical/comedy film, The Cocoanuts, featured an early, if unwitting, foreshadowing of gender equality in the job. The dialogue portion of the musical play featured a number of bellhops, all of them male. In fact, one of the opening songs was called The Bellhops. There were also a couple of chorus-line dance numbers featuring bellhops, all of them female. In case the viewing audience missed that subtlety, Groucho commented about it on-screen.

• The bellhop task of paging guests was referenced in a famous and long-running series of radio and print advertisements for the Philip Morris tobacco company. The ads featured a young man with a strong tenor voice announcing, "CALL... FOR... PHILIP MORR-E-IS!"

• In the video game Hotel Mario a species of Goomba appeared as an enemy character who was dressed as a bellhop.

• In the popular children's television series, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody a character named Esteban works as a bellhop in the Tipton Hotel.

• In the 1942 cartoon short Bellboy Donald, Donald Duck is a bellhop. This short is notorious as it marks the first appearance of character Pete Junior, with whom Donald has to deal despite the kid's attempts to enrage him.

• The cast members of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attractions at Disney theme parks are dressed as bellhops of The Hollywood Tower Hotel.

• The Bellboy and the Playgirls is a 1962 film by Francis Ford Coppola, Fritz Umgelter, and Jack Hill.

• Bell Boy is a song by The Who released on their 1973 album Quadrophenia.

• The bellhop is the main character in the popular missing dollar riddle.

Ganymede, Hebe, airline hostess, airline stewardess, attendant, batman, bellhop, bellman, bootblack, boots, cabin boy, caddie, callboy, caller, chore boy, copyboy, cupbearer, errand boy, errand girl, footboy, gofer, hostess, office boy, office girl, orderly, page, squire, steward, stewardess, tender, trainbearer, usher, yeoman