Archie Andrews is the name of the main character in a American comic book series, and of a ventriloquist's puppet that appeared in radio and television shows in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s.

Comic book character

Archibald "Archie" Andrews debuted in Pep Comics #22 December, 1941, and six decades later is still a redheaded sixteen-year-old. He lives in Riverdale, attends Riverdale High, and is the only son of Fred and Mary Andrews. He has many hobbies, drives an old car, and takes jobs to pay for dates.

Archie's love is divided between the rich and refined Veronica Lodge and the poor and athletic Betty Cooper; Betty is humble and Veronica is a snob; often they fight over him.

Archie is the lead singer of The Archies, performing with Betty, Veronica, Reggie and Jughead.

Archie is a good fellow, but also an accident waiting to happen and always gets involved in the funniest situations. Some of the many adults who to try be far away from this walking hurricane are Mr. Lodge and Riverdale High's principal, Mr. Weatherbee.

In the TV movie and subsequent comic book "To Riverdale and Back Again," which portrayed all the characters 15 years after their graduation from high school, Archie is a lawyer with a practice in Riverdale -- and still gets to Pop Tate's Chock'lit Shoppe as much as possible.

The Spanish version of Archie Andrews is named Archie Gómez.

Ventriloquist's puppet

Possibly derived from the comic character, Archie Andrews was the name of the puppet used by ventriloquist Peter Brough in a radio and television show in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s. Archie was invariably dressed in a broad-striped blazer, and addressed the ventriloquist as "Brough". The television scripts were written by Marty Feldman and Ronald Chesney.

The radio show attracted up to 15m listeners and had a children's fan club that at one time had 250,000 members. Among future stars who appeared on the show were Censored page, Max Bygraves, Harry Secombe, Benny Hill, Beryl Reid and (as a 14-year-old) Julie Andrews. On one occasion Archie was left on a train, and a £1000 reward was offered for his return .

External links

• Trivia on the character http://www.geocities.com/jughead_p_jones_12/archie_andrews.htm
• Archie Andrews the ventriloquist's puppet http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/children/other/archieandrews.htm