The ‘really tangled history’ of Chuck E. Cheese and its KC-born copycat, ShowBiz Pizza
Kansas City was once the epicenter of a corporate power struggle, a 1980s battle in a cutthroat industry:
Children’s entertainment centers with pizza and animatronics.
During the height of Chuck E. Cheese, Kansas City-born restaurant chain ShowBiz Pizza Place also entertained thousands of children, leading to a fierce fight for dominance in “pizza, Pacman, and performing robots,” as described in a 1982 Fortune article.
In 1984, The Star described ShowBiz Pizza’s offerings as “mechanical robot ‘entertainers’ with unusual names, video games, big-screen televisions and amusement parks for small children.”
That year, there were more than 200 ShowBiz Pizzas in the country, including six in Kansas and nine in Missouri. The company later merged with and rebranded as Chuck E. Cheese, which now has four locations in the Kansas City area. As that chain looks to modernize, its final animatronic in the metro will be removed in September.
For over 20 years, Travis Schafer has run the online archive ShowBizPizza.com, with descriptions of characters and digitized documents. The Colorado resident said going to ShowBiz Pizza for his birthday was a rare luxury during his money-strapped childhood.
Now in his 40s, Schafer said ShowBiz Pizza fascinates him because it’s “one of these rabbit holes that never ends.”
Schafer discovers new information about the company through newspaper archives and memorabilia found on eBay or in thrift stores.
“Even up until last week, we’re just discovering show tapes that we had never heard, that we didn’t even know existed,” he said.
Pizza Time vs. ShowBiz Pizza
“Chuck E. Cheese has a really tangled history,” said Schafer. He shared the twists and turns in an interview with The Star and on his website.
Started by Atari video games founder Nolan Bushnell, the first Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre opened in California in 1977 and rapidly expanded on the West Coast.
Two years later, Topeka-based Holiday Inn franchiser Robert Brock signed on to open more than 200 Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre franchises across the Midwest and South. But he didn’t follow the plan, a move that got him in legal hot water later.
Brock soon became frustrated with his contract and went out on his own, opening the first ShowBiz Pizza in 1980 in Kansas City. The two concepts were strikingly similar, though ShowBiz Pizza had different characters and the animatronics were smoother, according to multiple sources at the time.
Kansas City: The birthplace of ShowBiz Pizza
The first ShowBiz Pizza was located in what was then Antioch Center near Gladstone. The restaurant took over a 8,000-square-foot building that was previously a Thriftway Food Store. In 1980, The Star announced the opening with a headline, “Pizza Palace Purveys Pizzazz.”
“Billy Bob, a six-foot-tall bear, and his four cohorts, the Wolfpack Five, are a computerized, three-dimensional combo installed to entertain diners,” The Star said.
The band, which was called the Rock-afire Explosion at subsequent restaurants, included dog drummer Dingo Star, keyboardist Fats Gorilla, wolf emcee Wolfman and mouse singer Mini (later Mitzi) Mozzarella.
The animatronics played ’50s and ’60s rock while visitors chowed down on pizza, salads, soda and beer.
The “not-quite-live animated animal band” cost $200,000, The Star reported.
A flyer aimed at prospective franchisees bragged, “The company’s first pilot store in Kansas City, Missouri, opened to overwhelmingly favorable response.”
Schafer visited the Antioch location in the early 2000s, after it was converted into a Chuck E. Cheese. “I remember being floored, like even as an adult, how big that showroom was,” Schafer said.
But just as the restaurant was opening, Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre sued ShowBiz Pizza for breach of contract. When the suit was settled out of court in 1982, ShowBiz Pizza ended up having to pay a portion of its profits to Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre.
The downfall
The family pizza restaurant boom proved short-lived. Business slowed for both ShowBiz and Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre, and the latter filed for bankruptcy in early 1984.
A restaurant industry analyst told The Star in 1984, “This whole animated cartoon character pizza segment grew too fast and probably (built too many restaurants in) many of the markets they entered.”
Schafer said the robotic animals fell out of style because of cost.
“Instead of spending money, you know, repairing 30-year-old cylinders and a decaying animatronic, that money can be better spent fixing games or something that does actually draw money to the store,” he said.
Schafer added that the animatronics are not enough to sustain a business, whether a standalone restaurant or a large chain like ShowBiz Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese.
Believing it was the only way for the businesses to survive, the two merged. From 1985 to 1992, both Chuck E. Cheese and ShowBiz Pizza locations were up and running, all under the corporate umbrella of ShowBiz Pizza.
By 1992, all locations were rebranded to Chuck E. Cheese, because the corporation had the trademarks and copyrights for that brand. There are currently 480 Chuck E. Cheese locations in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, according to the company website.
A Rock-afire encore
ShowBiz Pizza’s Kansas City legacy doesn’t end in the 1990s. The short-lived Rock-afire Arcade Bar ended up with some of the original animatronics.
From 2018 until the bar closed the next year, the characters lip-synced ’80s classics like “Never Gonna Give You Up,” “The Safety Dance” and “Footloose” at Kansas City’s Martini Corner. The Star attempted to contact the former owner to learn where the characters are now, but did not receive a response.
The rodent isn’t doing well now. In 2020, the company filed for bankruptcy and had to restructure.
In Kansas City, the once-spacious Antioch Center ShowBiz Pizza was demolished in 2007. Only memories remain.
Do you have a Kansas City oddity you want uncovered? Contact the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.