Joe Keenan: The Man Behind Chuck E. Cheese's Empire

Joe Keenan was the president of Atari, Inc. and the chairman of Atari before becoming the president of Pizza Time Theatre, Inc. in 1979. Keenan replaced Gene Landrum, who was hired by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell to bring Bushnell's pizza parlour dream to life. Bushnell opened the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose, California, in 1977.

Joe Keenan was the president of Atari

In 1974, Kee Games was facing financial difficulties and was merged into Atari, with Keenan becoming president of the company. Atari was also facing financial difficulties at the time, and the release of Kee Games' original arcade game, Tank, helped Atari recover.

In 1975, Atari entered the consumer electronics market with its home Pong consoles. However, by 1978, Atari was facing competition in both the arcade and home console markets, and Bushnell recognised that the costs of developing both types of systems were too high. He directed Atari's engineers to work on a programmable home console, which was released in 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (later renamed the Atari 2600).

In 1976, Atari was sold to Warner Communications for $28 million, with Bushnell personally receiving $15 million. Warner provided a large investment in the Atari VCS, allowing it to be released in September 1977. However, Bushnell had concerns about the number of units produced and recommended that funds be used for R&D to develop a new, technologically superior console. By early 1979, it was recognised that Bushnell was no longer a good leader for the company, and he was removed as CEO and Chairman. Keenan replaced Bushnell as president, but left a few months later, and Ray Kassar was named as Atari's new CEO.

After leaving Atari, Keenan joined Bushnell to help manage his Pizza Time Theatre restaurant/arcade franchise.

Nolan Bushnell bought Pizza Time Theatre from Warner Communications

Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder of Atari, bought Pizza Time Theatre from Warner Communications in 1977. Bushnell had originally founded Pizza Time Theatre, which was the first family restaurant to integrate food with arcade games and animated entertainment. He did so with the intention of creating a distribution channel for Atari games. When Warner Communications bought Atari, they viewed Pizza Time Theatre as a dead-end hobby business and sold it back to Bushnell.

After buying back Pizza Time Theatre, Bushnell turned over day-to-day food operations to a newly hired restaurant executive and focused on Catalyst Technologies. Bushnell used large loans on his Pizza Time Theatre stock to fund Catalyst. By the end of 1983, Pizza Time Theatre was facing serious financial problems. Its president, Joe Keenan, resigned that fall. Bushnell tried to step in, but the board of directors rejected his proposed changes, and he resigned in February 1984. Pizza Time Theatre filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 1984.

In May 1985, a competing pizza/arcade family restaurant, Showbiz Pizza Place, purchased Pizza Time Theatre and assumed its debt. The newly formed company, Showbiz Pizza Time, operated restaurants under both brands before unifying all locations under the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza brand by 1993.

Chuck E. Cheese was originally a rat

Chuck E. Cheese, the mascot of the family entertainment center chain, was originally a rat. The character was created in 1977 by Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, as the mascot for his planned Coyote Pizza restaurant. However, when the costume he ordered arrived, it turned out to be a rat, not a coyote. Bushnell then decided to change the restaurant's name to Rick Rat's Pizza.

Bushnell's planners believed that having a rat as the namesake of a restaurant would be inappropriate and off-putting to customers. They eventually settled on the name Chuck E. Cheese and changed the restaurant's name to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre. The first location opened in San Jose, California, in 1977.

In the early days, Chuck E. Cheese was not as friendly as he is now. He smoked cigars, had a New Jersey accent, and was essentially an insult comic, with many of his jokes being offensive or sexual in nature. He was redesigned in 1993, transforming him from a rat to a mouse, and given a more child-friendly image. This new version of Chuck E. Cheese began appearing in restaurants by 2004.

Nolan Bushnell's non-competitive agreement with Atari

Nolan Bushnell is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre chain. Bushnell is considered to be the "father of electronic gaming" due to his contributions to establishing the arcade game market and creating Atari.

In 1973, Bushnell discreetly had his neighbour, Joe Keenan, establish Kee Games to manufacture near-copies of Atari's games. This was done to get more arcade games to market and bypass exclusivity limitations that coin-op game distributors had set. Even with Kee Games' output, Atari struggled to meet the demand for arcade games. By 1974, Atari was facing financial difficulties, in part due to the competition in the arcade game market. Bushnell opted to merge Kee Games into Atari in September 1974, just ahead of the release of "Tank", an original arcade game from Kee Games. The game was a success and helped improve Atari's finances. Following the merger, Keenan became president of Atari and managed its operations while Bushnell retained his CEO role.

In 1978, Bushnell purchased the rights to the Pizza Time Theatre concept from Warner Communications for $500,000. He had created Pizza Time Theatre in 1977 as a place where kids could eat pizza and play video games, thus functioning as a distribution channel for Atari games.

When Bushnell left Atari in November 1978, he signed a non-competitive agreement, which he did not think much of at the time as the thought of leaving Atari had never crossed his mind. The agreement banned him from working in the video game industry, which he had helped build and pioneer. Unable to work in the industry, Bushnell shifted his focus to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre. Over the next several years, he focused on this venture before moving his attention to developing new, innovative products.

Chuck E. Cheese's bankruptcy and merger with Showbiz Pizza Place

Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, founded by Nolan Bushnell in 1977, was the first family restaurant to integrate food with arcade games and animated entertainment. Bushnell, who also co-founded Atari, sought to expand video-game arcades beyond adult-oriented locations like pool halls and make them more family-friendly.

In 1979, Bushnell entered into a co-development agreement with hotelier Robert L. Brock to open approximately 285 Pizza Time Theatre restaurants across 16 states. Brock, however, soon met Aaron Fechter of Creative Engineering, Inc. and formed a competing company, ShowBiz Pizza Place, Inc. in December 1979. The first ShowBiz Pizza Place location opened in March 1980 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Pizza Time Theatre and ShowBiz Pizza Place rapidly expanded, and both companies became competitors. However, the popularity of arcades began to wane in the United States, and by the end of 1982, Chuck E. Cheese's revenues started to fall. The video game market crashed in 1983, and by mid-year, Pizza Time was operating at a loss. Bushnell's debts became unmanageable, and Pizza Time Theatre Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1984, reporting a loss of $58 million incurred in 1983.

The struggling company was then purchased by Brock in May 1985, merging the two restaurant companies into ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc. The merger formed a new parent company, and both restaurant chains continued to operate under their respective titles while major financial restructuring took place. The unification of the two brands began in 1990, with every location being renamed Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza.

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