Michael Jackson, Macaulay Culkin, Muhammad Ali and an Arabian monarch ? hotel doorman Carvel Van Putten has seen them all come and go during his long career.

Beginning in the hospitality industry at the age of just 13 washing dishes at Sherwood Manor Hotel in Fairylands, Mr. Van Putten has spent the past 38 years working at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.

He prides himself on being smart and friendly, since his is the first face many new guests see when they arrive at the hotel.

?First thing every morning you go past the mirror as you go into the hotel and you have to make sure that your clothes are clean and you have a smile on your face ? it?s like stepping on stage,? said the 59 year old.

?My main job is to greet people so presentation means a lot. You have got to have a bit of personality and love talking to people as that takes the strain off the feet!

?Some people do this job because they have to do it but I do it because I love the hotel industry. I?ve met people from the top to the bottom of the tree, from managerial presidents to the person who has saved up for a vacation on the Island and have never been to a hotel like the Hamilton Princess before.

?One of the things my career has done is teach me to communicate with people from all over the world.?

Mr. Van Putten loves Bermuda and takes delight in educating visitors about the Island, often taking time to talk to them about everything from local history and plant-life to the best places to find traditional Bermudian cuisine. The lucky ones are sometimes even treated to his singing, with ?Oh what a Bermuda-ful morning? being a particular favourite.

?Bermuda is a place that sells itself. People come here with a straight face not trusting anyone and keeping themselves, but give me three minutes to talk to someone and I can give them the feeling that Bermuda is another world,? he said.

He is also a walking encyclopaedia when it comes to dealing with the many and varied questions that guests ask him every day ? although some crop up time and time again.

?The most common thing any individual in the hotel business here is asked if it?s raining is ?does it ever rain?? and when it is raining it?s ?does it ever stop?? he said. ?I never say ?I don?t know? to any question, I will always try to find the answer.?

At a hotel often frequented by the rich and famous not much causes Mr. Van Putten to raise an eyebrow, but one of his most vivid memories is of a visit paid there in the early 1990s by pop megastar Michael Jackson.

Jackson spent a week at the Hamilton Princess while holidaying with ?Home Alone? child movie star Macauley Culkin, and the pair caused a sensation across the Island.

?Michael Jackson was the only individual that I have seen in Bermuda?s history that people came here to see. People were running after him at the hotel and I remember him throwing water balloons out of the window. I once had to get him out of the hotel through the kitchen and another time we closed the nightclub to the public just for him,? he recalled.

?Everyone wanted to meet him and I remember (Texan billionaire and Tucker?s Town resident) Ross Perot calling up the hotel and saying he wanted to meet him and we arranged for them to be introduced. Ross Perot then took Michael Jackson out on a boat trip.?

Macauley Culkin recently recalled the trip to Bermuda as part of his testimony as a defence witness in Jackson?s trial on child molestation charges.

Another famous face that made a real impression on Mr. Van Putten was legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.

?He used to come here all the time and I will never forget it,? he explained, recalling one occasion when the boxer had forgotten to give him a tip ? something which he later realised.

?I was called to his room to see him and he handed me a roll of money and said ?take what you want? but I only took a $20 bill.?

Other guests of note that have received a cheery smile from Mr. Van Putten as they walked through the door of the hotel include Saudi Arabia?s King Khalid, American singer Harry Belafonte and George de Mestral, the inventor of Velcro.

Not only does Mr. Van Putten, a self-confessed ?workaholic?, put in 40 hours per week at the hotel, but he also runs a business ? Carvel Jewellers on Court Street ? is a Corporation of Hamilton councillor, a Bermuda Industrial Union shop steward, and has run for office with the PLP in two by-elections and two General Elections.

It seems that, should he ever decide to give up his job as one of the faces of the Princess, he won?t get much peace when he?s out and about, such is his association with the place in the minds of so many.

?If I?m not on the door people ask where I am and if they see me out they ask why I?m not there,? he explained, with a smile.