Gigglebee's

Gigglebee's was a chain started by Piccadilly Circus that broke off and became it's own entity. The pizza place offered arcade games, laser tag, bumper cars, and skeeball.^[1] The main attraction of the restaurant however was the pizza serving animatronics on tracks that could hold conversations with guests. ^[2] The manufacturer of the animatronics is currently unknown other than that they were ordered from a catalogue.

History

Early History

In 1939, a successful grocery company called Red Owl was expanding and chose to have their third location be at 519 S Minnesota Ave in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This store was seen as very successful and 20 years later in 1959 it got a major expansion to the building. In 1976 the then property owner Merle Getten decided to rebrand the store into Country Store, a concept where customers could save money by bagging their own groceries and taking them out to their own cars. This concept wasn't very successful and the business sold out to Kampgrounds of America Inc in 1977. KOA then remodeled the property again and started an experimental business called Granny's Ice Cream Parlour and Family Fun Center. The concept included an arcade, bumper cars, pinball machines, batting cages, and mini golf. This concept however didn't take off the way KOA had hoped and in 1982 KOA sold the business to a firm called Advance-Carter Co. ACC decided to use the property to expand their business called The Circus which was an arcade at the time.^[3] This concept however didn't last too long and by 1986 the business was sold to Randy Hindbjorgen, Chris Kirkus, Randy Koepsell, and Doug McBeth who turned it into a Piccadilly Circus franchise location. This building would also become the most fondly remembered Gigglebee's location.

Founding

On April 13, 1984, Piccadilly Circus Pizza Inc posted an ad to the The Des Moines Register looking for people interested in working for a franchised Piccadilly Circus Pizza place.^[4] On June 6 of that same year, Robert Lawler, Rod Simonson, Fred Merch and Marty Miglionico would open the first robot-staffed Piccadilly Circus location. The location repurposed an old meat packing plant and turned it into an entertainment center titled KD Entertainment Center and Piccadilly Circus was put onto the second floor. The location had a strong start with the company claiming they would be competing with Showbiz because "Show Biz robots just stand there, they don't socialize with the crowd or carry pizzas."(Rod Simonson) This location introduced the concept of communication with robots through the introduction of characters Wilbur, Stanley, Stella, and Bandit. These characters had been made by The Robot Factory in Colorado for Merch the year prior as part of an idea he had.^[5] Merch claimed that other locations would also be switching being robot-staffed in the future, but that highly populated towns would be the first to receive the upgrade.

Around July of 1986, another Piccadilly Circus location was upgraded to have robot staff in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The location would be operated by Randy Hindbjorgen, Chris Kirkus, Randy Koepsell, and Doug McBeth, and would have Dilly the Lion, and unmentioned robot, and an upgraded Wilbur by The Robot Company in Colorado.^[6]

New Names

On February 26, 1988, a preexisting local pizza place in Sioux City called L.A.P.D. Pizza announced a name change to Piccadilly Circus Pizza.^[7] In June of that same year, the Piccadilly Circus at KD Station was renamed to Pizza Peddler.^[8] In 1989 a contest was held to determine the new name for the Piccadilly Circus in Sioux Falls as well. The winning entry from this contest was "Gigglebees" from Erin Brende of Dell Rapids who won a television set and a party at Gigglebee's as a reward.^[9] The new name was announced in December and from then on Piccadilly Circus became Gigglebee's.^[10] It was later stated that the parent company for Piccadilly Circus had been broken up which had made getting a name change easier.^[11]

Closing (Unfinished)

In late 2004 for an unknown reason, Pizza Peddler closed. This was the first Piccadilly Circus to close, but the owners expressed interest in reopening the store the next year.^[12] This unfortunately never happened.

After heavy competition from other pizza places such as Chuck E Cheese, Gigglebee's in Sioux Falls was forced to sell their land around roughly July 18, 2008. ^[13] An auction was held on October 25th of that same year.^[14] The plot was then converted into an office space and a bank. Rapid City was able to escape this fate however through a name change to "Peppy Pizza" due to Gigglebee's charging high royalties for the name.

Peppy Pizza (TODO)

Track Stars (TODO)

Characters

While Wilbur was the main character of Gigglebee's, the restaurant had many characters over the years it would phase in and out.^[15] Characters would often be reused with female and male aligning cosmetics depending on the voice actors available at the time. Most of the robots were likely made by The Robot Company in Colorado^[16]^[17] with the exception of the later versions of Wilbur.

Wilbur

Wilbur the coyote was the face of Gigglebee's, and also the main server of pizza. There were at least 4 different animatronics of Wilbur. The first version resembled Wil E. Coyote and was made for the first robot staffed Piccadilly Circus.^[18] The next version was made for Sioux Falls^[19] and was replaced at some point before the restaurant's closure with another version^[20] A final version of Wilbur appeared sometime before April 2019 that has the ability to blink.^[21]

Stanley

Not much is currently known about this character, it's possible that it was another name for Dilly/Dolly.

Stella

Stella was a monster character similar in appearance to Oscar the Grouch.^[5]

Bandit

This character was a raccoon character.^[18] They were very likely made by The Robot Company.

Dilly / Dolly

Dilly and Dolly were a lion characters. Dilly wore a red button up shirt and Dolly's cosmetics are currently unknown. They both shared the same robot.^[22]

Dexter

Dexter was a bear character who wore a red shirt and a patterned apron.^[23]

Rocky / Roxy

Rocky and Roxy were raccoon characters. Roxy is likely the character that shows up in the Gigglebee's commercial.

Jeremiah / Freida

Jeremiah was a bullfrog character, not much is currently known about them. Freida may have only been used at Track Stars, as no proof currently shows they were at Gigglebee's specifically.

Peppy / Pixie

Peppy was a dinosaur character called a pizzasaurus. They wore a striped shirt and brown pants. Pixie was their sister that used the same robot as Peppy, but instead of a striped shirt and brown pants they wore a dress, a bow, and a head tie. Their robot was used much longer than the other robots due to Gigglebee's in Rapid City rebranding to Peppy's Pizza.

Installed Locations

South Dakota

Sioux Falls, SD (519 S Minnesota Ave)

The original Gigglebee's. Wilbur was voiced and controlled by Brian Schultz.^[24]

Rapid City, SD (937 E North Street)

This was the only location franchised by Gigglebee's. This location renamed itself to Peppy's Pizza Arcade & Lazer sometime around 2008 to avoid paying huge royalties to Gigglebee's and closed in 2015. According to Jason Garland this was the only franchised Gigglebee's. Wilbur was voiced by Jason Garland. This location also used a slightly different Wilbur animatronic that had eyes that lit up when talking.

Iowa

Sioux City, IA (1951 Leech Ave) as Pizza Peddler

Location was located on the second floor of then KD Station, a meat packing plant turned entertainment and shopping center. Location also started offering delivery in late July of 2000.^[25]

Milford IA as Corporate Office^[4]

Current Whereabouts

Wilbur

After the restaurant's closing in 2008, an auction was held and Wilbur was sold to George Hahn. Wilbur would disappear for a while before returning in 2017 on a radio show to announce his return.^[26] Wilbur was still on his second version at this point. After this Wilbur would show up around town from time to time for events like conventions, charities, parties, and more. To this day Wilbur is seen as a local celebrity and can still be seen around town attending events.

Trivia

At Rapid Falls the staff called Wilbur "Wilbur the Crazy Coyote"
Randy Hindbjorgen's brother, Dan Hindbjorgen, was the robot operator for Wilbur and Dilly when the Sioux Falls location first opened.^[6]
Due to a rough past the Sioux Falls location would adopt a strong no loitering policy and wouldn't allow people to stand around the restaurant. ^[6]
On October 5th and 11th of 1986 Wilbur and Dilly would attend a car display show in Sioux Falls.^[27]
On October 17th of 1987 Wilbur was a judge of the jack-o-lantern contest in Sioux Falls.^[28]
In Sioux Falls in late March of 1988 Wilbur participated in a safety lesson for children by acting as if he had been hit by a car.^[29]
Despite switching their Wilbur animatronic at some point, Pizza Peddler continued to draw Wilbur similar to Wil E Coyote up until it's closing.

Videos

Link	Description	Filming Date
Link	Wilbur announces his return to Sioux Falls on the KSOO AM Radio	May 31, 2017
Link	Advertisement for Gigglebee's, also shows Roxy Raccoon in it.	Early 90s
Link	Video of a guest holding a conversation with Wilbur	February 4, 2006
Link	Wilbur sings Happy Birthday to a guest.	February 4, 2006
Link	Wilbur tries to figure out whose food he has.	February 4, 2006
Link	Wilbur makes an appearance at Argus Leader to talk about what he's been up to, likely shortly after conversion to his V3 animatronic.^[30]	July 18, 2019
Link	Video of some people visiting Gigglebee's.	2005
Link	Wilbur singing Happy Birthday at Rapid Falls.	Unknown
Link	George Hahn announces his plans to bring back Gigglebee's in the future	March 6, 2012
Link	Video with Gigglebee's auction going on in the background	October 25, 2008^[14]