If Chuck E. Cheese goes, so does a bit of S.J. history
It appears one of my favorite San Jose landmarks will live to chomp another day.
I’m talking about the 30-foot statue of Chuck E. Cheese that sits in one of three glasswalled alcoves at the pizza chain’s location off Tully Road.
Created in the early 1980s by sculptor Jeff Tritel, the foam-and-fiberglass rodent can be seen by drivers on Highway 101, as big a monument to pizza and commerce as you’ll find anywhere west of Chicago.
I was a little worried about its fate last week when the Texasbased parent company of Chuck E. Cheese announced it was filing for bankruptcy because of losses stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
But CEC Entertainment says its reorganization shouldn’t mean the closing — or continued closure — of its hundreds of restaurants around the country, including several in the Bay Area.
Don’t get me wrong. My fondness for Chuck E. Cheese has little to do with its pizza or the noisy games that keep kids pushing buttons like slot machine fiends in Vegas.
It’s not even the animatronic and anthropomorphic animals, including Mr. Cheese himself, that would entertain guests (and have since been retired in favor of live costumed performers).
It’s because Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theater got its start in San Jose in 1977, founded by Atari co-founder and Pong inventor Nolan Bushnell, who — the story goes — wanted to create a family friendly place where kids could play games.
The original Pizza Time Theater was on South Winchester Boulevard — Santana Row occupies the site now — but it wasn’t long before Bushnell’s concept caught on and the colorful pizza joints started popping up all over, introducing families to characters like Jasper T. Jowls, Mr. Munch and Pasqually the chef.
In a valley full of invention, Chuck E. Cheese — along with Togo’s Sandwiches and Eggo waffles — is a San Jose original that caught on nationwide. The signature character has evolved over the years, transforming from a gangster-themed, paunchy rat to a slimmed-down mouse along the way, and trading in his cigar and bowler hat for athletic gear.
The Chuck E. Cheese statue came to be after the restaurant moved into the former home of Magic Village,a toy store iv iv idly remember from my childhood that had giant toy soldiers in the three alcoves. (They survived, too, and are on display at the Children’s Museum in Stockton.)
The statue has been repainted to match the company’s current color scheme, and Chuck E. Cheese still has his hat (but no cigar), so I imagine he’ll be around after this latest financial drama passes.
After all, it’s not even the company’s first bankruptcy. That happened in 1984 and led to Bushnell’s departure from the company.
Speaking of Bushnell, he figures into one of my favorite stories about Chuck E. Cheese.
David E. Early, a retired features writer and editor at The Mercury News, wrote in 2015 about his unsettling experience finding a Confederate flag among several in an automated flag-waving display, as well as mini versions of the flag for sale.
Sometime later, he ran into Bushnell on an assignment and enlightened him about the issue.
Bushnell listened, and when Early took his kids to the pizza parlor the following week, the flags were gone.
DOWNTOWN ART INFUSION >> The provocative and poignant murals that have sprouted on walls and boarded-up windows around downtown San Jose since the Black Lives Matter protests started have been a welcome addition to the artistic streetscape.
Another is the Downtown Doors student art program, which is installing 10 new pieces on utility doors and boxes, creating a street gallery of 302 works of student art in 17 years.
The San Jose Downtown Foundation program received nearly 100 submissions in January and February, and the pieces selected will be displayed at the Hammer Theatre Center, Il Fornaio and the Westin Sainte Claire, the Fairmont San Jose, 50 West and Studio Climbing Gym.
“Downtown Doors provides young artists the opportunity to publicly express themselves,” said Ramona Snyder, president of the SJDF board.
“Students of all ethnicities and demographics have been posting their messages of change and hope downtown for 16 years now.”
SAVE THE STREAMERS >> When San Jose’s Rose, White & Blue Parade, traditionally held on July 4, had to be called off because of the coronavirus pandemic, organizers were optimistic they could stage the 13th annual event for Labor Day in September.
But conditions haven’t changed enough to make anyone think that’s a possibility, so the parade has officially been canceled until 2021.
Instead, revelers are invited to take part in an online celebration at Facebook.com/rosewhiteblueparade by sending in photos or video greetings for the holiday.
Get more information at rwbsj.org/parade-participation.
FOND FAREWELL >> Park Place Vintage, the Willow Glen store where you could find a dress from the 1950s or the perfect aloha shirt, closed its doors last weekend after 38 years, another business casualty of shelter-in-place.
It was a great place to purchase vintage clothing and other gifts, or just spend some time while cruising Lincoln Avenue.
Owner Linda Ruiz announced she was closing in May and had a couple of weekends of blowout sales to empty out the 3,000-square-foot space.
“I’m not going to stop being Park Place Vintage,” Ruiz said on Facebook, “I’m just going to do it differently.”