Chuck E. Cheese’s also known as Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre, Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza is the first family restaurant to integrate food with arcade games and animated entertainment in the United State, thus being one of the pioneers of the “family entertainment center” concept.
It is an American entertainment restaurant chain founded on May 17, 1977, by Atari, Inc.’s co-founder Nolan Bushnell. Former mainstays included ball pits, crawl tubes, and animatronic shows. The chain’s name is taken from its main character and mascot, Chuck E. Cheese. The first location opened as Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose, California.
Bankruptcy, Acquisitions, Restructuring
After filing for bankruptcy in 1984, the chain was acquired in 1985 by Brock Hotel Corporation, the parent company of competitor ShowBiz Pizza Place. The merger formed a new parent company, ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc., which began unifying the two brands in 1990, renaming every location Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza. It was later shortened to Chuck E. Cheese’s in 1994 and Chuck E. Cheese in 2019.
Why is "Chuck E. Cheese"
Nolan Bushnell sought to expand video-game arcades beyond adult locations like pool halls to family-friendly venues. His experience in the amusement park industry, and his fondness for the Enchanted Tiki Room[1]and the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland, influenced his concept for Pizza Time Theatre. He has said, “It was my pet project … I chose pizza because of the wait time and the build schedule—very few components, and not too many ways to screw it up.”
Bushnell would drive around the Bay Area with Atari co-founder Ted Dabney looking at different pizza parlors and restaurants to brainstorm concepts. “Chuck E. Cheese was always his (Nolan’s) passion project, even before Atari was a thing,” said Dabney. “He wanted to start a business of family-friendly restaurants with amusement park midway games. I think initially it made no fiscal sense, so he shelved it for a while, but then when Atari took off, he had the means to pursue it, plus a built-in distribution model for Atari’s new releases.”
When his first animatronic show was being assembled, Bushnell learned the costume he had bought for his main character, a coyote, was actually a rat, prompting him to suggest changing the name from “Coyote Pizza” to “Rick Rat’s Pizza”. His marketing team believed this name would not be appealing to customers and proposed “Chuck E. Cheese” instead. The company adopted the rat as their mascot.
The History Of Chuck E. Cheese
In June 1979, Bushnell began to expand beyond California and the West Coast and to franchise, resulting in a co-development agreement between himself and Robert Brock of Topeka Inn Management. The agreement handed Brock exclusive franchising rights for opening Pizza Time Theatres in sixteen states across the Southern and Midwestern United States, while also forming a company subdivision, “Pizza Show Biz”, to develop the Pizza Time Theatres.
In November 1979, he scouted Fechter’s business and concluded that Creative Engineering’s animatronics would be too strong a competition for Bushnell’s work.
Late in 1979, Brock became aware of Aaron Fechter of Creative Engineering, Inc. and his work in animatronics.
In December 1979 Brock and Fechter formed ShowBiz Pizza Place Inc.
on March 3, 1980, ShowBiz Pizza Place opened its first location, in Kansas City, Missouri.
Upon the opening of ShowBiz Pizza Place, Bushnell sued Brock and Topeka Inn Management over a breach of contract. ShowBiz Pizza Place was conceptually identical to Pizza Time Theatre in all aspects except for animation, which would be provided by Creative Engineering.
Brock immediately issued a counter-suit against Bushnell, citing misrepresentation. The court case began in March 1980, and the courts ruled in favor of Bushnell after he successfully argued that ShowBiz was imitating his unique concepts. The ruling forced Brock to pay Bushnell a percentage of annual revenues from the first 160 locations he opened. Topeka Inn Management later changed its name to Brock Hotel Corporation, and in 1982 moved its headquarters to Irving, Texas.
