Milwaukee, WI (7401 Good Hope Rd)
7401 Good Hope Rd was a ShowBiz Pizza Place/Chuck E. Cheese's that opened on June 17th, 1981, as a ShowBiz Pizza Place with a Rock-afire Explosion. Good Hope would subsequently close in 1985 with other unprofitable stores and reopen the same year as a Chuck E. Cheese’s. The store closed in 1995 (Unknown Month and Day) with a 1-Stage. It was located next to a Kmart in the former Kmart Foods space.
History
Good Hope opened on June 17th, 1981 as the first ShowBiz Pizza Place in Wisconsin as a corporate-owned store in the space that once housed a Kmart Foods Grocery Store. Good Hope originally featured the Rock-afire Explosion, as all other ShowBiz locations did. Good Hope would have it for a few years, until 1985, when the store would close due to being unprofitable and the show was removed and sent to Raleigh (It would then undergo Concept Unification in 1991, and be removed in 2022). Good Hope would reopen as a franchised Chuck E. Cheese’s store, owned by the same franchisee as the three other stores in the area. Good Hope would feature a Balcony Stage until it would was replaced with Chuck E.'s House in around 1988, when they would also receive the 1986 SPT Remodel Program. Good Hope was one of three ShowBiz Pizza stores to get this stage, the other two being White Settlement (Which got it after they reopened, like Good Hope) and Citrus Heights. They would have it until sometime in 1994 when it is believed that they received the 1994 SPT Repositioning / Remodel Program which involved the conversion of Chuck E.'s House to a 1-Stage. Good Hope would remain this way until the store was permanently closed a year later in 1995 for unknown reasons. The whole building, including the neighboring Kmart would then be demolished for a Home Depot for 2005, which closed in 2008. The site is now a Pick 'n Save. As of May 2023, Pick 'n Save is still in the building.
Stages
Originally, Good Hope featured a Rock-afire Explosion, as all other Showbiz locations did. In 1985, Good Hope would close and would remove the Rock-afire Explosion. Good Hope reopened the same year with a Balcony Stage, and around 1988 would replace it with Chuck E.'s House. They would then convert Chuck E.'s House into a 1-Stage. They had the 1-Stage until the store's closure sometime in 1995. It is unknown what happened to the stage after Good Hope closed.
| Stage | Installed | Removed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rock-afire Explosion | June 1981 | 1985 | 1st Showbiz to open in Wisconsin. Show sent to Raleigh, NC (3501-131 Capital Blvd) where it underwent Concept Unification around 3 years after the store's opening. |
| Balcony Stage | 1985 | 1988 | |
| Chuck E.'s House | 1988 | 1994 | One of three installed in Wisconsin, also one of three installed in a former ShowBiz Pizza Place. |
| 1-Stage | 1994 | 1995 | One of four installed in Wisconsin. |
Animatronics
Trivia
- Good Hope was the 1st ShowBiz to open in Wisconsin. This was one of two ShowBiz Pizza Stores to open up in Milwaukee. The other location was Greenfield which opened 2 months and 10 days later and was the 2nd ShowBiz Pizza Store to open in the state. This was also one of two Chuck E. Cheese's locations located within the Milwaukee city limits (Excluding West Allis).
- This was one of two locations to remove their 1-Stage before 1996 (The other was Warwick which closed on November 19th, 1994).