Byegone places in Mexico City / Showbiz pizza Mexico City, famous for its arcade games
In the 80s and 90s, a pizza restaurant sprouted in Mexico that was an entertainment center for children, with video games and ugly robots.
By Alejandro Pohlenz
A Sopitas.com article states that Showbiz Pizza disappeared in 1992. That year it changed its name in the United States to Chuck E. Cheese's. I mention it because I clearly remember taking my children to the "arcade" and skill games place in the basement of the building where the Hermanos Vázquez furniture store was located. My oldest son was born in 1992. What I pleasantly recall is that all those places (remember Piccolo Mondo?) were great. The kids played like crazy, ate whatever they wanted, and you sat down to think about the immortality of the crab: instant babysitters! It was the beginning of the alienation of electronic games...
The origin of the franchise
One of the co-founders of Atari, one of the first video games, proposed a project to create restaurants with arcades and animatronics. He opened the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, in San Jose, California in 1977. From a split of that group emerged Showbiz Pizza in 1980 in Massachusetts. Its particularities: pizza, arcades, and animatronics. In fact, a music band was created with some very ugly bears: The Rock-afire Explosion.
Showbiz Pizza in Mexico
Here in Mexico, Showbiz started in the 80s. Sopitas.com says: "...from the entrance everything was a dream. Colorful balloons, talking animatronics, hundreds of games, sweets everywhere, and an (endless) menu of pizzas..." Soon branches emerged in Acapulco, Guadalajara, San Luis Potosí, and Satélite. Around 1996, Showbiz disappeared and we stopped seeing Beach Bear, Choo-Choo, Mitzi Mozzarella, and Billy Rob, illustrious musical animatronics.
Here's a commercial: take a look.
Permanently closed.
