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| The Pizza Show Biz working name and its use before and after Bob Brock started Showbiz Pizza Place | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 7 2015, 02:09 AM (905 Views) | |
| PaulKTF | Feb 7 2015, 02:09 AM Post #1 |
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Okay, so as I understand it, when Bob Brock was going to become a franchisee of Pizza Time Theatere stores, his group of franchised stores would have been managed under the overall company name Pizza Show Biz. This is referenced in the first issue of The Pizza Times from December, 1879: http://www.showbizpizza.com/info/documents/ptt/ptt_pizzatimes-1979.pdf The logo he designed (which is very similar to the first ShowBiz Pizza Place logo- see examples below) was only something that would have been seen on business cards and company documents relating to his ownership of those franchised PTT stores. The logo would not have been used on any tokens or tickets, since the stores would all be PTTs. However, once he decided to back out of that deal and start his own chain using CEI's animatronics, he was going to simply use that existing name and logo (since they already had it on hand), repurpose it, and call the new chain Pizza Show Biz. Before the first store opened in March 1980, he and his business partners decided to change the name of the chain to ShowBiz Pizza Place. This rough draft of a Press Release dating from January of 1980 refers to the first store (which would open in March of that year) as Pizza Show Biz: http://www.showbizpizza.com/info/documents/spp/spp_memos_80.pdf but it actually opened under the ShowBiz Pizza Place name that March. So that tells me that the decision to switch from the Pizza Show Biz name to ShowBiz Pizza Place must have happened between February and March of 1980 (in other words, fairly late in lead-up to the restaurant opening!). See these documents for some usage of the Pizza Show Biz name: Another memo from January 1980: http://www.showbizpizza.com/info/documents/spp/spp_80_ad-ideas.pdf A Pizza Show Biz token http://www.showbizpizza.com/sppcollect/tokens/index.html Note that it says in the description of the token that this was meant to be used in a Pizza Show Biz before Bob Brock broke away, but that doesn't make any sense to me at all. Let me explain why... Had Bob Brock stuck with PTT and become a franchisee, Bob Brock's stores would have been called Pizza Time Theatre just like all of the others if he had stayed on as a PTT Franchisee, right? "His" stores wouldn't have had some other name, so using the Pizza Show Biz company name on the tokens wouldn't have made any sense. If it was a token produced by Bob Brock's people for their PTT locations, it would have had the PTT logo/name on it jus tike any other token produced/meant for PTT. It wouldn't have made sense to brand Brock's PTT tokens/tickets with anything other than the PTT name and logo. So, I think the token was actually produced during the brief period when ShowBiz Pizza Place was going to be called Pizza Show Biz, and NOT something produced for one of Bob Brock's PTT franchise locations. Also, if you look at the PTT documents section http://www.showbizpizza.com/info/documents/ptt/index.html It shows this business card http://www.showbizpizza.com/info/documents/ptt/ptt_pizzashowbizcard.pdf which is clearly from the short period after Bob Brock agreed to become a PTT franchisee but before he backed out (it references the company being a franchisee of PTT). What do you guys think? Does my theory sound like it makes sense? If I'm wrong anywhere, please feel free to correct me. P.S- All this tells me that Bob Brock made his decision to abandon PTT and go with CEI and start ShowBiz very quickly and very late in the game. I think that's kind of interesting. Edited by PaulKTF, Feb 7 2015, 03:10 AM.
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| VegaNova | Feb 7 2015, 09:31 AM Post #2 |
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You're probably correct that these were intended for the initial ShowBiz store and produced prior to the name change between 1/80-3/80. He did in fact make his decision to break away toward the very end. He didn't sign the contracts with Aaron until late December of 1979 (Pre-Incorporation Agreement). However, that being said - these still *could* have been made with the intention of being used in a PTT though I admit that's an unlikely scenario. I say this because there's a variation of the PTT city tokens that doesn't have a city on it, but instead has HAV PIZZA. This is a reference to the franchisee company HAV Pizza. So these were used in the PTT stores that they owned and operated. I never understood why this token had that until I saw a mention of them in one of the issues of the Pizza Times. ![]() But anyway, that Antioch store was designed to be a PTT inside and out and wasn't made into ShowBiz until the last minute. The cabaret room was in place and became the disco room. In fact if you look at one of the early promo brochures you can see the first Billy Bob walkaround standing right next to PTT's Cheese Crawl, lol. Because it was built as a PTT, Pizza Time considered it to be operating under the terms of their original franchise agreement regardless of Brock's declaration of it now being an independent store. |
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| VanceTheVHSGuy | Feb 7 2015, 11:55 AM Post #3 |
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"BUZZ OFF, KID!"- Joe Don Baker (Mitchell)
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Woah! Learn something new everyday!
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| 80sgirl | Feb 7 2015, 08:01 PM Post #4 |
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Electroidal Animal Doctor
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Didn't the first location get to the point where they had the PTT animatronics at the store and just stuck the CEI bots in instead and shipped the PTT ones back? I'm kind of wondering whether it was built with the portrait setup or the balcony stage, since that was right around the time Kooser was testing the new stage. |
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| VanceTheVHSGuy | Feb 12 2015, 11:29 PM Post #5 |
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"BUZZ OFF, KID!"- Joe Don Baker (Mitchell)
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PTT was using "Balcony" around 1979. So I bet it was going to be a Balcony store. Edited by VanceTheVHSGuy, Feb 12 2015, 11:29 PM.
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