Joliet, IL (1965 W Jefferson St)

Joliet in the early 2000’s.

1965 W Jefferson St was a Chuck E. Cheese's that opened as a ShowBiz Pizza Place on July 13th, 1983 with a Rock-afire Explosion (Later Munch’s Make Believe Band), which closed in September 2006.

Stages

It started as a Rock-afire, then in 1991 or 1992 became a 3-Stage.

Post Closure

As for the building itself, after Joliet closed in September 2006, it was left vacant for 15 years. The exterior remained almost the same, with the only changes being it being painted over. As for the interior, it was mostly gutted, but things such as the showroom walls and the Skytubes letters were left inside. In 2021, as part of the redevelopment of the vacant space next to the CEC, Planet Fitness decided to move in.

As for the show, it was sent to the Mishawaka, Indiana store. Mishawaka installed Joliet’s animatronics on their stage, which performed until 2018 when the stage caught fire and was removed.

Gallery

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  Joliet as a ShowBiz Pizza Place in the 1980’s.

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  Joliet’s Rock-afire Explosion.

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  Joliet’s Rolfe and Earl.

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  Joliet’s Mitzi and Beach Bear.

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  Joliet’s Chuck E. in the early 2000’s.

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  Center stage in the early 2000’s, with Jasper’s latex mask.

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  Center stage in the early 2000’s, but after the replacement of Jasper’s latex mask.

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  Joliet’s exterior in the late 2000’s after closure.

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  Joliet in the 2010’s, with the exterior painted over.

Animatronics

As previously mentioned, the animatronics from Joliet were sent to Mishawaka, IN. Mishawaka then replaced their original animatronics with Joliet’s, meaning their original animatronics must have been in poor shape and Joliet’s were a lot better. Joliet’s animatronics were in service on Mishawaka’s stage until in 2018, a fire destroyed the stage, forcing Mishawaka to get a dance floor. Joliet’s animatronics then were split between multiple stores such as Darien, IL and Chicago Kedzie IL to be used as parts.

Animatronic	Serial	Whereabouts
Rolfe DeWolfe/Chuck E. Cheese	10-82 1-23	Owned by a Doc Ferdifer.
Mitzi Mozzarella/Helen Henny	10-82 5-23	Owned by a private collector.
Fatz Geronimo/Mr. Munch	10-82 3-23	Unknown where he went after the fire.
Beach Bear/Jasper T. Jowls)	10-82 4-23	Last seen at the Chicago Kedzie, IL CEC being used as parts. Unknown what happened after Kedzie got Studio C.
Dook Larue/Pasqually	10-82 2-23	Unknown where he went after the fire.