The Beginning: ATARI
The founder of ATARI, Nolan Bushnell, started Chuck E. Cheese animatronics! Video game arcades circa 1980 were not doing well. Mr. Bushnell was an innovator and thought combining a dining experience with not just an arcade but also an animatronic band would bring back the arcades. He was correct, and Chuck E. Cheese animatronics and restaurants were franchised by the hundreds. True, the animatronics were relatively rudimentary, but that did not matter to kids playing video games and eating pizza.
Showbiz Pizza Place
The two companies became competitors and found early success, partly due to the rise in popularity of arcade games during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The type of animatronics used in the ShowBiz Pizza chain distinguished it from its rival, which offered many of the same services. When Pizza Time Theatre declared bankruptcy in 1984, ShowBiz merged with the struggling franchise to settle a former court settlement mandate, emerging as ShowBiz Pizza Time. Following a severing of ties with CEI in 1990, ShowBiz Pizza locations were rebranded as Chuck E. Cheese locations, which took several years to complete.
Chuck E. Cheese is still open…but…
Yes, you can visit one of 600 Chuck E. Cheese spots around the world. But the do not have animatronics anymore. Why not? We LOVE animatronics!
What do you think? Please feel free to contact us directly
2024