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Q&A With Author Charles MacPherson, The Butler Speaks

We may not have the luxury of actually employing a butler, but thanks to shows like "Downton Abbey" and "Upstairs Downstairs," and movies like "The Butler," we have become familiar with the idea of employing someone to manage the household. And though it may seem like a dated profession, the job of being a butler, or as it is better known today, a household manager, is alive and well. North America's only licensed academy for people wishing to pursue the profession is in Toronto. Academy founder Charles MacPherson, author of "The Butler Speaks: A Guide to Stylish Entertaining, Etiquette and the Art of Good Housekeeping," will present "The Butler Speaks" at The Mark Twain House & Museum on March 13 at 7 p.m. He will discuss everything you need to know to simplify, organize and care for your home — from tasks including making a cheese plate and the proper way to hold your cutlery to folding a shirt and preparing high tea. But how did he become the expert and what are the job opportunities these days for those who would like to serve others? MacPherson very politely explained it all as he Spilled the Beans with Java.

Q: Do people still hire butlers? And why the need to go to school for it?

A: The truth is the school is about teaching people to be butlers and what they are also known as these days, household managers. But to do the job you also have to learn how to have courtesy and understand respect and patience. You won't succeed without it in this business. The butlers you see on television were in the domestic service of Victorian and Edwardian periods. That does not exist anymore. Now when you are in private service, you will have a home of your own and work 50, 60, 70 hours a week, just like any corporate manager. While you might think of the servant as being subservient, that is not what the career is about these days. It is a profession about running a household successfully and making life better and easier for your boss.

Q: I am curious about your student pool. Are there many Americans, and is it still a male-dominated profession?

A: I am proud to say that 40 to 50 percent of our students are American, and men are still predominant as students. There seems to be a bias toward men running the house from a service perspective but women are gaining. There is a shortage of good people for these positions but one of the key elements is that there has to be the right personality fit between the butler or house manager and the boss. It is much different than working for say, IBM, where you are a bookkeeper. You are hired and it doesn't matter much if you and the boss don't like each other. In a household where you are seeing the best and worst of the people who live there, where you are touching their underwear, overseeing meals, making sure the house runs without a hitch, you and the employer have to like each other to a certain degree.

Q: So what can a butler or house manager earn, and what does it cost to take your classes?

A: The one-month course is $7,500 all in. You walk out into a profession where the salary is $50,000 to $60,000 a year. The average person who is successful in this profession is usually in a midlife crisis, has had a career but had decided this is what they want to do instead. Twenty-year-olds don't do so well at this kind of job. There are many jobs out there. We cannot meet the demands of those looking for butlers. It is shocking how many jobs there are out there, including in America, although people don't think so. There are corporate heads and families up and down Park Avenue who are entertaining for business and social reasons, and they need their homes run professionally so when they are entertaining they can deal with social and business issues and close the deal.

Q: I was surprised that you kind of look like a butler. When did you know that such a service career was your passion?

A: I went to college for hotel management and then went into it when I graduated. I didn't like it and ended up getting into the catering business. I was offered my first job as a butler by a family I catered parties for at the time. For the first two or three months I had a lot to learn and was thinking, "Is this what I want?" But I was bitten by the bug, and after the first year became responsible for 30 full-time staff.

Q: What other attributes besides managing well does a butler/house manager need?

A: You need an understanding of accounting because you are overseeing the household budget, how to review contracts and other basic needs. You need logic and you need to be smart. When I talk about what makes a successful butler, I say that it should be someone with curiosity. When you are sitting there with the furnace repair man and you're told you need a Y joint, you need to be able to figure out, "Why do I need this?" and not be afraid to ask the furnace man questions. You need to read the newspaper, be up on current events so that if you find yourself alone with a guest you can be entertaining. You have to listen intelligently and comment intelligently.

Q: Does anyone even care about etiquette, proper manners or tasteful hospitality anymore? It doesn't seem it much in the United States anymore. What do you think?

A: I used to live in New York for nine years and am familiar because I have friends in the [United States]. Daily civility in a lot of our lives is absolutely missing. I believe that people are aggravated and irritated by the lack of it. When we think of etiquette, unfortunately what we think of is lady in cocktail dress with pearls serving tea. That doesn't exist in our world. It is about how we communicate amongst ourselves these days. How do you talk to the bus driver, the worker in the next cubicle, breakfast with your brother?

Q: When you watch programs like "Downton Abbey" or movies like "The Butler," do you enjoy them?

A: Once I relax and I know they are doing it correctly, I get excited. In the movie "The Butler" — and I adore that movie — one of my favorite lines is when Oprah says, "Everything you have is because of that butler." She is proud of the profession and is saying, "Don't be ashamed of your father." In "Remains of the Day," while that movie was made in a period of time that does not exist now, I was impressed at how well done and documented it was

Q: There is a line in your book I love: "Luxury can be had by anyone because it's about giving someone the gift of feeling welcomed, cherished and looked after." Can you have luxury without a butler?

A: Luxury will never go out of style and you can give yourself luxury. Luxury for different people in different demographics means different things. I have a little house in the country and on weekends and I have a little rickety tray from my grandma that is not worth anything. But when I put a little teapot and a mug and sugar and cream and some cookies on it and go into the backyard with my feet touching the grass, I am the luckiest person in the world.

Q: I have to ask, do you still teach how to use a butler stick to make sure place settings and glasses are evenly laid out on the table?

A: We do. It makes for a beautifully set table.

Read MaryEllen Fillo's blog at, follow her on Twitter @maryellenfillo, on Facebook at Maryellen Fillo (Hartford Courant Java). Also you can watch her on FOXCT, Thursdays between 9 and 10 a.m., and listen to her on the Big D Morning show, "Mike and Kim in the Morning" on 102.9 DRC-FM and the Brad Davis Show at 1360 WDRC-AM on Friday mornings at 8:20 and 8:35 a.m.

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