It is hard to imagine the Fairmont Hamilton Princess without Carvel Van Putten’s smiling face. Mr Van Putten has been a doorman at the hotel for more than 35 years, and has worked in the hotel industry for longer than that. While most people in the industry start at the door and work their way inside, for Mr Van Putten it was the other way around. The 64-year-old is a people person, and likes nothing more than to be on the outside chatting with visitors. Not only does he chat, but he occasionally bursts into cheerful song in a deep, baritone voice. After being nominated for a Belco Visitor Industry Partnership (VIP) Excellence Award three times over the years, he won the ‘Best of the Best’ category this year for the first time. His prize was a $20,000 monetary market fund. Jessie Moniz recently met with Mr Van Putten to learn more about his long career in the hotel industry.Q:I have always wondered how many doors you open in a day. You must be so sore when you go home.A: I have heard that question before. I believe it has to be thousands of times a day. I am not sore when I go home. About 12 years ago, new doors were put on, and they were heavier than past doors. So myself with the other workers were getting to hurt our shoulders by pulling them open. We had to get someone in from Health & Safety to show us how to open the new doors. It was less taxing on the shoulders, if you walked with the door and used your body, but as time goes on, you get stronger and your body copes better with the task.Q:Does it ever get boring?A: Not if you love what you are doing. In the hotel industry you are always meeting people. Everyone has a story. A long time ago there was a television show called ‘The Naked City’. They would say there are six million stories in New York and this is just one of them. I am a talk-aholic. I get to meet lots of people and exchange lots of ideas.Q:You are the face of the hotel, in a way.A: Well I know a lot about the history of the hotel. I love bygones and what happened in the past. I think I have the gift to hold on to things. I think I am a bit of a mental packrat. Instead of keeping items, I keep stories in my head and events. That is good at times, because you can retrieve things when needed. Everything becomes valuable after awhile.Q: So the tourists ask you quite a lot of questions?A: Oh yes, and locals alike. You would be surprised. Sometimes local people don’t keep on top of who we are and where we are going. It is important to know where you are coming from. In today’s lifestyle people look at life as just about money. People choose a good job based on money. They get behind a desk bored to heck all day. They have all the credentials that the world can give you but they are bored. I look at success as more than the capital project, I look at it as how do you feel at the end of the day. Right now I am in my 60s. I feel I do things physically that young people in their 30s are doing.Q: Do you golf or play sports?A: No, I do a little fishing, and I like nature. I do a little walking and sit-ups. I take my time eating my breakfast. I eat Quaker Oats every morning. I try to make sure my mind and body is energised. I love looking good, smelling good and tasting good. I like to look good. So when I get to my job even though it is just a bunch of doors you are looking at opening and closing, there is a pageantry to it. Television host Bee Smith and her husband come to Bermuda quite often. Her husband and I are good friends. We talk a lot. I told him once, ‘I am just a doorman’. He said ‘no, Carvel, you are the man at the door’.Q: Having doormen gives a certain feeling to the hotel, doesn’t it? It says this is a special place if people are opening doors for me here.A: Sometimes, with the vastness of larger hotels you lose the charm. The Fairmont Hamilton Princess deals with the individual and many people from international business. I always say that international business is part of tourism. People come here and want to do business because of the surroundings of the people and the beauty of the Country.Q: Any plans to retire?A: I will be 65 next year. I was just looking over my hotel pension this morning. I am thankful for being a trade unionist. The unions have done a lot to take the industry forward. I was a part of getting the Hotel Division started. I am a shop steward now. In the early days, we had to pay five shillings out of our pocket every week to the union. That is when we were getting started. You look at it today and we are a force to be recognised. We have proper work hours. I used to work at Elbow Beach and Horizons many years ago. Back then, there was no union, so at the end of the season they just let you go. Then you had to knock on the door for a job the next year.Q:You are quite well known for your singing. Do you just sing to the tourists?A: I sing to tourists. I also sang ‘Oh What a Beautiful Morning’ at the VIP awards affair. Everyone said, ‘oh wow’. I have sung it for the Bermuda Government, tourism, and CBS. CBS just had a radio show and interviewed people in Bermuda. They asked me a question and I sang that. They used it all across North America. People come back and say ‘I heard you on the radio’.Q:Did you do any singing in church?A: When I was a kid. Being in the hotel industry, things like going to church, you can’t just go on a Sunday morning because you are working. All through the years, when you went to church I worked. When you went to bed, I was working. When you went home and watched late night television, the hotel people were working. I work 8am to 4pm, five days a week. I am off for two days during the week. Working in the hotel has its liabilities. When you go horseback riding or swimming or going to church, we are working. You have to love it. It is something that gets into your bones.