This is the story of...
Showbiz Pizza.
The story of Showbiz Pizza is...a bit complicated.
To properly understand the history, we'll need to focus on three individuals, and their
respective companies: Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, Robert Brock, an owner of several
hotel franchises, and Aaron Fechter, founder of Creative Engineering, Inc.
The best place to start is probably with Nolan Bushnell and Atari.
In 1976, shortly after being acquired by Warner Communications, Atari was looking for a way
to make arcades more of a family destination, as up until that point they had mostly found
adoption in bars and bowling alleys.
Bushnell came up with the idea of creating an arcade centered around pizza and entertainment,
and from this was born Chuck E Cheese's Pizza Time Theater.
The first restaurant was opened in 1977, and on top of pizza and arcade games, also showcased
a stage area, featuring animatronic characters that came to life and sang music at regular
intervals.
The concept became an immediate success.
By 1978, Bushnell had become disenfranchised with the new Warner management of Atari, and
used some of his profit from the sale of Atari to buy out the Chuck E Cheese Pizza Time Theater
restaurant venture.
Almost immediately Bushnell began looking for franchisees to expand the restaurant,
and found one in Robert Brock, a wealthy owner of several Holiday Inn Hotel franchises.
In 1979, Brock signed a multimillion-dollar franchising agreement with Pizza Time Theatre
Inc., and expected to open as many as 280 Chuck E. Cheese locations across 16 states
in the United States.
Things were off to a great start, but unfortunately, they wouldn't last long.
In late November 1979, Brock heard about another company making animatronic characters, Creative
Engineering Inc, and traveled to Orlando, FL to meet Aaron Fechter, their founder.
Upon arriving, Brock was surprised to find a company that employed 25 people and created
far better animation than what was currently in Pizza Time Theatres.
This concerned him, in that a competitor could come along and copy the Chuck E Cheese Pizza
Time Theater model, but with better animatronic characters.
One month later, in December of 1979, Brock broke all ties with Bushnell and declared
their franchise agreement void.
He then signed an agreement with Fechter to create a new corporation, the ShowBiz Pizza
Place Inc.
ShowBiz was to be 80% owned by Brock and 20% by Creative Engineering, the latter of which
would be responsible for producing the animatronics used at ShowBiz Pizza, The Rock-afire Explosion.
As one can imagine, this new arrangement did not sit well with Bushnell, and Chuck E Cheese
almost immediately sued Showbiz Pizza.
The case would drag on for over two years, with Showbiz eventually settling with Chuck
E Cheese out of court, agreeing to pay them a share of their profits over the next 10
years.
Legal issues aside, the period of 1980 to 1982 was extremely positive for both companies,
as they expanded their franchise numbers and continued to outdo each other with regard
to customer experience; however, 1983 would prove to be a devastating year for the world
of video games.
A number of factors (ironically, many relating back to Atari) caused the video game crash
of 1983, and with it went a significant portion of Bushnell's fortune and resources.
This pushed Chuck E Cheese to the brink of solvency, and Showbiz Pizza Place was quick
to pounce on the opportunity, buying up the entire company.
During the latter half of the 1980s, video games came back into fashion, and things began
to stabilize for the combined Showbiz Pizza/Chuck E Cheese company.
If you find your memories are a bit confused between the two brands, this period is the
reason why, as the merging of the two companies brought with it a confusing mix of two corporate
brands, from the animatronic sets used in the store, all the way up to the names of
the restaurants themselves.
Corporate leadership recognized this, and in addition to starting to re-brand under
the Showbiz Pizza name, they also looked to bring animatronics development in-house.
By 1990, Creative Engineering Inc. had been completely pushed-out from the original arrangement;
however, since they owned the rights to the Rock-afire animatronics show, Showbiz began
altering their shows to utilize Chuck E Cheese.
As Chuck E Cheese began to take shape as the mascot of the company, it made sense to simply
re-brand the entire company under that name.
By 1992, all Showbiz Pizza Place restaurants had been re-named to Chuck E Cheese.
Business continued to grow at the restaurants, and so in 1998, with all stores now unified
under Chuck E Cheese brand, and everything going well, ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc. became
Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment Inc.
This is effectively the end of the name "ShowBiz Pizza".
Chuck E. Cheese’s exists today as the premiere family restaurant entertainment center.
Despite the hardships faced by a weakened economy, Chuck E. Cheese has held strong and
continues to be successful.
While it seems unlikely that the popularity of arcades from the 70s and 80s will ever
re-emerge, Chuck E Cheese still remains a popular escape for parents who want to grab
a bite to eat, while letting their kids run around being kids.
And what about the men who started it all?
After being pushed out by the Showbiz Pizza corporation, Creative Engineering sold the
Rock-afire show to several competitors, but achieved only minor success.
With the Rock-afire Explosion being only a shadow in Creative’s past, Aaron Fechter
is now involved with an automated karaoke machine called the Star Launcher.
Robert Brock passed away in 1998.
After leaving Showbiz, he remained active in the hotel business, as well as providing
assistance in political campaigns.
Nolan Bushnell was left financially crippled after the default of Pizza Time Theatre, and
spent the next ten years paying back Merrill Lynch.
Just as Bushnell was ready to make a comeback with the influx of the internet explosion
in 1995, he was sued by Merrill Lynch over a remaining $500,000.
The suit scared away investors from his new project, and Bushnell remained in debt until
1997, losing his house and most of his possessions in the process.
Bushnell's most recent company is BrainRush, a company that uses video game technology
in educational software where he is Founder, CEO and Chairman.
The company was venture capital funded in 2012.
So after 40 years, it seems he has come full-circle, back to the world of video games.
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