Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips is an American fast food seafood restaurant and former chain. At the peak of its popularity in the late 1970s, it had more than 800 stores. However, as of June 2021, there are only two stand-alone Arthur Treacher's location remaining. The menu offers fried seafood or chicken, accompanied by chips (French fries). History Namesake The chain's namesake is Arthur Treacher (1894–1975), an English character actor typecast as "the perfect butler" for his performances as Jeeves, as a butler in several Shirley Temple films, and the role of Constable Jones in Walt Disney Productions' Mary Poppins. At the time the chain was founded, Treacher was best known as the announcer and sidekick on the popular The Merv Griffin Show. Treacher refused in interviews to confirm whether he had a financial involvement in the restaurants. Regardless, he "served as a spokesman for the restaurant chain in its early years, underscoring the British character of its food." He would sometimes visit the restaurants in a red double-decker bus. In a 1975 interview, New England franchise vice president M. John Elliott claimed the fish recipe to be the actor's own, brought over from the United Kingdom. National Fast Food Corp. The franchise company was started in Columbus, Ohio in 1969 as National Fast Food Corp. Its principals at the time included S. Robert Davis, his friend and future Wendy's founder Dave Thomas, and L. S. Hartzog. Davis was a real estate developer who built and leased several Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken properties. Thomas sold his Colonel Sanders franchises back to that company for $3 million. Hartzog ran a chain of bakeries selling biscuits to Colonel Sanders franchisees nationally. Fisher Foods In 1970, Fisher Foods swapped capital with and licensed franchises from National, with a total of 550 franchises sold (106 to Fisher alone), but only 99 stores were actually in operation. Long John Silver's, Captain D's, Skipper's and Alfie's Fish & Chips likewise employed the fish franchise concept about the same time. Aided by Arthur Treacher's advertisements, these companies introduced British fish and chips to northeastern America, albeit four years after Salt's Fish & Chips (later renamed H. Salt, Esq. Authentic English Fish and Chips) introduced British fish and chips to America in California. Orange Co. By the early 1970s, National Fast Food had become Orange Co. Under this name, Davis conducted an aggressive expansion campaign from 1972