June 2 is National Fish and Chip Day. At least, it is in the UK, where they know their fish and chips. But it’s celebrated on the American side of the pond as well. Did you that in the UK, a “chippy” is a fish and chip shop? But here, if you tell people you’re going to visit a chippy, they’ll think you’re meeting up with a floozy.
According to the Federation of Fish Friers, the British eat 382 million portions of fish and chips a year, which works out to more than 12 every second. You can read that and nine other fascinating fish facts in Top 10 facts about fish and chips.
When I hear “fish and chips,” the first thing that pops into my head is the jingle for the popular 1970s fast-food chain Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips. You might think that chain is extinct, but you’d be wrong: According to Wikipedia, there are still eight of them, in Ohio, New York, and New Jersey, where nobody has bothered to tell them that it’s time to throw out the fish.
Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips commercial (1977)
Clap your hands and smack your lips, for Arthur Treacher’s original fish and chips!
So who was Arthur Treacher, anyway? He was an English actor who played a lot of butlers, including the title character in Thank You, Jeeves! (1936) and Step Lively, Jeeves! (1937). His credits also include several Shirley Temple movies. And in the 1960s, he was an announcer and sidekick on The Merv Griffin Show.
Below, Treacher and Temple sing and dance together in The Little Princess.
Shirley Temple and Arthur Treacher, “Knocked ’em in the Old Kent Road,” The Little Princess (1939)
No matter which side of the Atlantic you’re on, regardless of what kind of chippy you visit, have a happy National Fish & Chip Day!
Michael's TV Tray 
When Arthur Treacher was Merv Griffin’s sidekick in the mid-’60s, the two of them recorded an LP of old English Music Hall songs; it was mainly Arthur’s album, although Merv contributed a couple of numbers.
One of the songs was a somewhat jazzed-up rendition of “Wot ‘Cher!”, the number in your clip.
Back in the day, I had this LP, which even for the times was in really awful condition; playing it constantly didn’t help.
I’m wondering if it was ever made available as a CD.
Anybody …?
In 1975-79, I was stationed at Patrick AFB in Cocoa Beach. I soon learned about ATF&C via Orlando TV commercials. They weren’t located in our part of town as far as I knew, but I soon stumbled upon one just east of MCO (Orlando) Airport. Over the next 4 years anytime we had to go to MCO for to deliver or pick up or flying out ourselves, we had to make a stop a ATF&C and that succulent Icelandic cod! The Tv commercial jingle I most remember went like this: “Arrrrrthur Treachers fish and chips…” There was another line, the last one, but I forgot it now. I will NEVER forget ATF&C however.