Helen Henny 1984

Clips of the balcony stage show at Chuck E. Cheese's in Phoenix, AZ from February, 1984!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Chuck
• e
• cheese
• helen
• henny
• pizza
• time
• theatre

[mp3aa]

That's just the way it looked back then.

[dooklarue]

Where was there a Chuck E. Cheese in Phoenix? I only remember ShowBiz Pizza on 35th & Northern and another ShowBiz in Mesa.

[mp3aa]

43rd Ave & Thomas.

[dooklarue]

@mp3aa I remember 43rd & Thomas as Pistol Pete's Pizza. They also had the Rock-afire show. Chuck E. must have not lasted long in AZ. It was one of those markets Billy Bob won.

[mp3aa]

@dooklarue @dooklarue

Chuck E. Cheese corporate went bankrupt from poor management.

We were a franchise with a store in Tempe and Phoenix.

We kicked Showbiz Pizza's butt.

When Showbiz took over after the corporate bankruptcy, they doubled our royality payments and our owners gave up.

The Tempe store was closed and the Phoenix store was sold to the idiots that ran Pistol Pete's.

I think it's a Peter Piper's now.

[mp3aa]

The clapper board.

Unfortunately, I can find no video of it in my archives.

[SimbrealityHomeOne]

i'm glad i was'nt born when they had balcony shows

[funmusic878]

my 5th birthday was at chuck e chesse pizza time theater in springfiled i had my birthday party at the old chuck e chesse pizza time theater until the they closed in 1988 when showbiz bought chuck e chesse in springfiled illinnois we were very upset when they closed we loved that place my mom took me also when wasnt my birthday just for fun

[PokerBrent]

I use to have daily problems with the reel to reel audio for the shows. All the shows audio, music, movements, lights, etc. were controled with a single reel to reel tape player. They were heavily used and would fail constantly. Usually what would happen is the characters would either not move or they would move erratically. I even had "The King" fall one day. He pivots using a single ball joint in his back. It broke and he fell forward. It scared the **** out of the kids that were watching him.

[PokerBrent]

I use to work at several Chuck E Cheese stores in Florida back in the 80's when they were having money problems. They were closing stores left and right before the bankruptcy happened. I was moved to another store after each was closed. When Showbiz took over they came in my last store and started forcing out the employees and replacing them with their own. They started at the top and worked their way down. I left when they started with me. I hated Showbiz when they took control.

[dooklarue]

@mp3aa Nearly the whole mall that used to have Pistol Pete's in it on 43rd/Thomas is empty now, including the old CEC/Pistol Pete space. Thanks for the AZ CEC history. It's similar to what happened in MN. ShowBiz and CEC's franchises pulled out in '87. Circus, like Pistol Pete's, took over a mix of the old SPPs and CECs, also with Rock-afire shows.  CEC came back in '98 and bought Circus, so now CEC rules Mpls and PHX again. Billy Bob had a good run in those markets in the 80s/90s, though.

[TheChoujinVirus]

@smercuryfangrl9

they changed Hellen from her original 84 version to the cheerleader routine in hopes popularizing with the younger girls, mostly to compete another character from the Rock-a Fire named Mitzi Mozzarella

[brando99able]

why is chuck es vest like that?

[tieyourmotherdown1]

@chestosneako These have 9 movements. Not bad, considering they were put in 300 stores. One word: MONEY. Do you really think it would be cost effective to put 25 movement bots in 600 stores? No way. That's why they came up with Studio C Alpha. It has 32 movements. They realized it was too much money, so they came up with Beta. Most Beta's have 16 movements. Who knows what Phase 5 will bring. Chuck will probably only be able to move his head and mouth. The classic 2 movement! I can see it now.