This Day in History July 23, 1894

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Have you ever heard of this actor?  I actually have.  And on this date in 1984, Arthur Treacher was born.  Although you may not be familiar with his name, I will bet you actually have seen one of his movies.  He was English-born and a WWI veteran who came to this country in 1928 as a part of a musical-comedy revue.  He often played a butler in countless films.  He was only married once (what a novel idea!), and he was still married upon his death December 14, 1975.

You might know him as the police officer of Disney's Mary Poppins.  When butlers went out of style, he returned to his first love-the stage.  He was known as the announcer of the Merv Griffin Show until 1970 when he retired.  He also allowed his name to be used for the Fish and Chips shops that sprung up on the East Coast.

Do you wonder why I know of his name?  Well, I am one of those weird people who grew up watching old films and looking at the names of various actors on the credits.  I think I first saw him in Mary Poppins, and then he showed up Little Princess with Shirley Temple.  I began to realize that he was a lot of Hollywood films, and I knew he was normally the butler.  I remembered his name, and I knew immediately who he was when I was checking out information for today.  Isn't it nice to know that useless information actually can help you in times like this?

For more information, please check out:
http://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/arthur-treacher.html
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0871546/bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Treacher
http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/arthur-treacher/
Picture source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_Treacher_in_Bridal_Suite_trailer.jpg