Chuck E. Cheese

* PTT (1977-1981)
* PTT (1981-1983)
* CEC (1983-1989)
* CEC (1989-1992)
* CEC (1992-1994)
* CEC (1994-1997)
* CEC (1997-2004)
* CEC (2004-2012)
* CEC (2012-2019)
* CEC (2015-2017)
* CEC (2017-2018)
* CEC (2018-2019)
* CEC (2019-Present)
* CEC Retro Stores (2022-Present)
* SPP (1980-1987)
* SPP (1987-1992)

## History

### Formerly:

Atari Pizza Shop Concepts (1972-1974), Coyote Pizza (1974-1975), Rick Rat's Pizza (1975-1976), The Big Cheese's (1976-1977), Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theaterr (1977-1990), Showbiz Pizza Place (1980-1989), Showbiz Pizza (1987-1992), Chuck E. Cheese's (1983-1990;1998-2017), Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza (1989-1998), Chuck E. Cheese (2017-Present), Chuck E. Cheese Pizzeria & Games (2018-Present), Chuck E. Cheese's World Famous Pizza (2020-2023), Charlie Cheese's Pizza Playhouse (Australia) (1981-1999), Charlie Cheese's (Australia) (1999-Present), Chuck E. Cheese's (Japan) (1987-2019), Chuck E. Cheese (Japan) (2019-Present), Chuck E.'s Pizza (Other Countries) (1993-2017), Chuck E. Cheese (Other Countries) (2017-Present)

### Founder(s):

Nolan Bushnell (CEC), Robert Brock (SPP), Aaron Fechter (SPP)

### Founded in:

San Jose, California (CEC) (May 17 1977), Kansas City Missouri (SPP) (January 1980)

### Former Companies

Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater/Pizza Time Theater Inc.

## Ownership & Company

### Owner Company

Atari Inc. (1972-1978), Pizza Time Theater Inc. (1978-1983), CEC Entertainment (1983-Present)

## Locations

### First location

San Jose, California (370 S Winchester BLVD.)

### Countries in

United States (1977-Present), Japan (1985-Present), Australia (1981-Present), Mexico (1983-Present), UK (1985-Present), Saudi Arabia (1989-Present), Canada (1992-Present), China (1998-Present), New Zealand (2003-Present), France (2010-Present).

## People & Staff

### CEO(s)

Nolan Bushnell (CEC PTT) (1977-1983), Robert Brock (SPP) (1980-1983), Aaron Fechter (SPP) (1980-1987), Johnson Vary (CEC/SPP) (1983-1999), David Ranson (1999-2020), Jeffery Darin (2020-Present)

Chuck E. Cheese is an American FEC founded in 1977 by Nolan Bushnell & in 1980 by Robert brock and Aaron Fechter. The company is a hybrid between Showbiz Pizza Place & Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater.

## History

### Atari Pizza Shop Concepts (1972-1974)

main article: Atari Inc.

in late 1972 after the success of Atari, Nolan Bushnell was wanting to work on a pizza shop concept for Atari where you could play games. The Pizza Shop concepts would include Nolan's Animatronic based restaurant concept called, "Coyote Pizza".

### Coyote Pizza/Rick Rat's Pizza/The Big Cheese's (1974-1977)

in early 1974, Nolan Bushnell would start work on his animatronic restaurant called "Coyote Pizza". The mascot would be a anthropomorphic Coyote. In late 1974, Nolan would hire the Fantasy Forest Marketing & Manufacturing company along with its founder, Harold Golbranson to design the animatronics for the establishment. in early 1975, Nolan Bushnell would go to the IAAPA convention to see if he could buy decor and/or a mascot suit for the Chain. Nolan would buy a "Coyote" suit created by The 20th Century US cosmetics Inc. . When Nolan got back to the Atari headquarters, he would go to the FFM&M staff to ask if they could make the "Coyote" mascot suit into an Animatronic, instead, they found out that the suit was of a rat. Nolan would design the character he called "Ricky Rat/Rick Rat" based on the mascot suit along with re-naming the company, Rick Rat's Pizza. The FFM&M staff, mostly Harold Golbranson, would suggest the change of the name from a rat name to another more friendly name. Jeff Van would suggest the name "The Big Cheese/The Main Cheese", the name was used as the official name for the character from now on. in mid 1976, Nolan Bushnell would change the name to "the Big Cheese's" along with hiring John Widelock for the voice of The Big Cheese. In mid 1976, The first demo showtape of the company was created under the name "The Big Cheese's Birthday Showtape" along with the new character called "Crusty the Cat". In late 1976, Nolan Bushnell would go to the IAAPA Convention & would find a young inventor by the name of Aaron Fechter. Nolan Bushnell would ask to buy Aaron Fechter's animatronics, but Fechter would decline. Nolan & his team would find out that The Marriott Hotel had the Trademark for "The Big Cheese" so the character would be named to "The Main Cheese" with early plans being made of the first store with the new characters, Jasper T. Jowls, Pasqually the Chef, The Warbllettes, and The Applause Board. In February 1977, Nolan Bushnell would rename the character to "**Chuck E. Cheese/Charles Entertainment Cheese**" along with naming the company "Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater" with a prototype animatronic being created. The Pizza Time Orchestra was created as the band of the now named "Pizza Time Players". In April 1977, Nolan & his team would start work on the animatronics & map of the upcoming San Jose California location at the Winchester shopping center. On May 8th 1977, Nolan Bushnell would sell Atari Inc. to Warner Communications Inc. . On May 9th 1977, The first location would go through a private showcase for Warner communication employees & FF members.

### Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater "Pre-Showbiz Era" (1977-1980)

On May 17th 1977, Nolan Bushnell & Atari would open the first CEC PTT.