by Herbie J Pilato
It all started at 4:30 AM, about thirty years ago, at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
My contracted 18 months as a Page for NBC had ended, and I began working weekends and periodic weekdays at the Biltmore as a Gold Room Butler for the then-exclusive 9th Floor Executive Suites. It was the type of work I performed as a Bellman for the Marriott Hotel back in Rochester, New York, years before I moved to L.A. and went to work for NBC.
While at the Biltmore, I was also cast as one of the waiters at Duke’s Restaurant on ABC’s General Hospital, and served as an extra or “atmosphere player” on other daytime soaps like CBS’s The Bold and the Beautiful.