Allan Edwards, with tasseled shoes agleam, trousers pressed to a crisp crease, is spreading lemon curd on a guest`s just-baked biscuit as he explains his foray into butlerhood.
”There was an advertisement in the newspaper (he pronounces it adVERtisement in his impeccable English) that said, `Housekeeper needed for a million-dollar home. Must like dog.` ”
Destiny was calling: He answered the ad, met with the multimillionaire bachelor who placed it, and they clicked. But Edwards promptly saw that what the young man needed was infinitely more than a housekeeper.
The man needed a butler, `90s-style.
Now don`t think for a moment that Edwards matches the stereotype of a butler. That pinched-mouth creature-the one who unsmilingly answered the massive front door and looked disapprovingly down his nose at the guest outside-may be found in old movies, but he wouldn`t last long in today`s world.
”We`re not Jeeves anymore,” said Edwards, 46, a native of Yorkshire, England, who came to the United States 22 years ago and has settled in Dallas. Today`s butler-unlike his silver-polishing counterpart of the past-is likely to be a combination of executive assistant, travel agent, bookkeeper and meal-preparer.
In the future-partly because of two-salary families-”you`ll see more and more of us,” Edwards predicted. ”We free our employers from the mundane and petty parts of daily life, and we make what spare time they have as enjoyable as possible.”
In Edwards` case, that means maintaining three BMWs, a Bronco, jet skis, a 26-foot sailboat and a 46-foot cruiser, planning parties, traveling with his boss and cooking, cleaning and doing laundry.
He fields phone calls from his boss` friends, business associates, those who want a piece of his employer`s wealth for their own cause and the merely curious.
This year, he also has juggled his time to oversee the restoration of a 1937 Rolls-Royce, arrange for a new swimming pool to be built and set up a salt-water aquarium in the home`s game room, which also has a player piano, big-screen TV and pool table.
He manages it all from his office in the mansion, a room with a fireplace and a splendid view of the Bent Tree Country Club Golf Course.
It`s not 9 to 5
His job generally calls for him to work 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with Sunday his only day off.
Sometimes, his personal life must be sacrificed-such as one Christmas when the mansion`s water pipes burst after a freeze. Under the water`s weight, a portion of the roof collapsed and Edwards spent a frantic Christmas Eve moving furniture and mopping floors.
It all comes under the heading of ”running the estate”-a 10,000-square- foot home.
The salary is good, he said. He declined to say how much he makes, but butlers generally make $40,000 or more a year, according to a butler school in England.
Another plus is that ”everything comes together finally in one place, without the corporate pressure or office politics-which I hate,” Edwards said.
”You have care, have a genuine concern because, in some ways, you`re family,” he said. ”Here, domestic service seems to be thought of as a demeaning job-something to get out of and move on. But in England, domestic service is something to take an enormous amount of pride in.”
His loyalty helps make Edwards the consummate butler, say those who know him. His employer declined to be interviewed, but former coworker Hildegarde
”Hoby” Tottle of Hollywood said Edwards ”knows confidentiality-when to talk and when not to.
”Allan ran our formal dining room, took care of the wines and saw to it that the regular customers felt comfortable,” said Tottle, travel manager for the western region of Radisson Hotels International. ”He`s very organized-kept a list of the clientele, their birthdays, anniversaries and what wine they liked. He was responsible for a large waiter staff.”
Not a live-in
That, along with his family`s background in managing hotels and restaurants, helped prepare him to be a butler, Edwards said.
In Edwards` spare time now, he enjoys rodeos, photography, classical music-and he still indulges his penchant for recipes: ”I have a really good collection of cookbooks, and I read one as if it were a novel,” he said.
When he gets homesick, he tunes in to British comedy on public television or calls an English friend, another butler.
Unlike butlers of old, ”I don`t live on premises, and that allows you some privacy,” he said. He lives with a roommate in an apartment three miles from the mansion. But ”I allow myself to be on call 24 hours a day. . . . I`m willing to adjust my schedule.
”You play a dual role of employee and friend,” he said. ”And you`re a confidant. The position is one of great trust. You`re privy to comings and goings, to their personal lives and secrets.”
Sometimes, his bachelor boss even solicits his opinion on the occasional young woman who is invited to dinner at the mansion. But try to query Edwards further on that matter, and he is pleasant but tight-lipped.
”In a very modern way,” he said, ”I`m a gentleman`s gentleman.”
Off to the Colonies
Butlers may have had their start as officers of the English royal household, but today, the main market for them is in the distinctly unroyal United States.
That`s the word from Ivor Spencer of the London suburb of Dulwich, who founded a prestigious school for butlers 11 years ago.
”If you can work for an American businessman or businesswoman, you know you`re first class,” Spencer said in a long-distance telephone interview.
”You can`t bluff an American businessman or businesswoman-they`re too clever. If someone can make their homes a sanctuary, they know they`ve got a gem.”
”When I started the school, butlers were discreet, loyal, likely to work 50 years for one family,” he said. ”They mostly served food and drink, looked after clothes-that`s all. They certainly didn`t run the house.
”I changed all that,” he said. ”We`re going into the 21st Century, and we don`t work for old money so much anymore. But I realized the ladies we`d work for in the future would be running their own businesses. I saw someone was needed to book travel, run the staff, purchase wines, plan parties.”
Spencer himself has never been a butler, but he has run an upscale catering business for 25 years, organizing and sometimes even being master of ceremonies for some 900 royal events.
Among those who have hired his students are media magnate Rupert Murdoch, the duke and duchess of York and King Hussein of Jordan, Spencer said.
The training, which costs $5,250, is offered at branches of his school in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States.
