A cabana boy is a male attendant who serves the guests of a
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...
, large private estate, or luxury resort operating from a nearby ''
cabaña'' (
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
for cabin; compare
cabin boy
A cabin boy or ship's boy is a boy or young man who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship, especially running errands for the captain. The modern merchant navy successor to the cabin boy is the steward's assistant.
Duties
Cabin boys ...
, a similar occupation aboard ships during the
age of sail
The Age of Sail is a period in European history that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid-15th) to the mid-19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the int ...
), often on a
beach
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...
. A pool boy or pool attendant performs the same duties at a
swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...
. Duties may include: working with towels, swimsuits, robes, blankets, bathing caps, soap, umbrellas, beach chairs, launder, and may serve refreshments.
careerplanner.com Cabana
Notable cabana boys in fiction
Literature
*in the 1974 novel '' Montauk'' by the Swiss writer Max Frisch
Motion pictures
*Jeffrey Willis in '' The Flamingo Kid''
*Enrique Salvatore in '' Legally Blonde''
* Alan Riply in '' Forever Mine''
Video games
*in '' The Curse of Monkey Island'' and '' The Siege of Plunder''
*a single mission in '' Hitman: Blood Money'', set in Del Mar, California
Del Mar (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Of the Sea") is a beach city in San Diego County, California, located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Established in 1885 as a seaside resort, the city incorporated in 1959. The population was 3,954 ...
Television
* Brad Carlton in ''The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in the fictional Genoa City (named after the real-life Genoa City, Wiscon ...
''
* Cabana Boy (also known as Pool Boy) in ''MADtv
''Mad TV'' (stylized as ''MADtv'') is an American sketch comedy television series created by David Salzman, Fax Bahr, and Adam Small. Loosely based on the humor magazine '' Mad'', ''Mad TVs pre-taped satirical sketches were primarily parodie ...
s recurring skit "Cabana Chat" played by Bryan Callen
* John Cherland and Kirk Porter in '' Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants''
* Sean ( Dustin Clare) in '' Satisfaction''
* Chandler Bing
Chandler Muriel Bing is a fictional character from the NBC sitcom ''Friends'', portrayed by Matthew Perry. Chandler was born to Nora Tyler Bing, an erotic romance novelist, and Charles Bing, a gay female impersonator and star of a Las Vegas drag ...
(Matthew Perry
Matthew Langford Perry (August 19, 1969 – October 28, 2023) was an American and Canadian actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He gained international fame for starring as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom ''Friends'' (1994– ...
) in ''Friends
''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...
''
* Ramon ( Carlos Jacott) in ''Seinfeld
''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It ...
''
* Zak ( Paul Michael Robinson) in ''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'' is a comic book series published by Archie Comics about the adventures of a fictional American teenager named Sabrina Spellman. Sabrina was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo, and first appea ...
''
* Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley
Jason Bradford Priestley (born August 28, 1969) is a Canadian-American actor and television director. Priestly starred as virtuous Brandon Walsh on the television series ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (1990–1998, 2000). His other television roles in ...
) in ''Beverly Hills, 90210
''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (often referred to as ''90210'') is an American teen drama television series created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling via his production company Spelling Television. The series ran for 10 seasons on Fo ...
''
* Bart Simpson
Bartholomew Jo-Jo "Bart" Simpson is a character in the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'' who is part of the titular family. Bart made his television debut in the short " Good Night" on '' The Tracey Ullman Show'' on Apri ...
in ''The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
'' was once described by his sister Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television sitcom series ''The Simpsons''. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa was born as a character in '' The Tracey Ullman Show'' short ...
as "the devil's cabana boy."
* In ''Monk (TV series)
''Monk'' is an American police procedural comedy drama detective Mystery fiction, mystery television series that originally ran on the USA Network from July 12, 2002, to December 4, 2009, with 125 episodes broadcast over List of Monk episodes, ...
'' Lieutenant Randy Disher is mockingly dubbed a "Cabana Boy" of his superior, Captain Leland Stottlemeyer, by the criminal Dale the Whale.
See also
*Butler
A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...
* Page (servant)
*Groom (profession)
A groom or stable boy (stable hand, stable lad) is a person who is responsible for some or all aspects of the management of horses and/or the care of the stables themselves. The term most often refers to a person who is the employee of a stable ...
*Valet
A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, ''valet de chambre'' was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "va ...
References
{{reflist
External links
"ON THE JOB: The former president's pool boy", Chris Colin, ''SF Gate'', September 24, 2007
Personal care and service occupations
Domestic workers