Bellhop

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A bellhop (also bellboy or bellman) is a hotel porter, who helps patrons with their luggage while checking in or out.

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.

Often (s)he wears a uniform, like certain other page boys or doormen.

In many countries such as the United States, it customary to tip such an employee for his or her 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".

Duties that are often included in this job are opening the front door, moving luggage, valeting cars, calling cabs, giving directions, basic concierge work, and responding to any need of the guest.

[edit] Popular references

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. 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!"