721 W Olive Ave was a
Pizza Time Theatre/
Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza that opened on April 18th, 1983 and closed in January 1995 on an unknown day.
History
Merced's location would open on April 18th, 1983 as a corporate store with Madame Oink. They would later get Helen Henny. It was a two-story building, formerly a bank. While overseeing the construction in 1983, Bonnie J. Collins, then West Coast Marketing Director for PTT, took a liking to Merced. She would move to the city with her daughter in 1984. With the help of her father, she purchased the location sometime around late 1985 or early 1986, making it a franchise store. It's unknown if Merced had a Lounge act as videos and photos of Merced's Pizza Time Theatre are scarce. The store would then convert the Balcony Stage into Chuck E.'s House Facade. In around April 1992, the store would convert the Chuck E.'s House Facade into the 3rd ever installed 2-Stage which was interestingly a unique Prototype. The store was closed for over a year while receiving this renovation. Not long after, the store was featured in the CEC cast member highlight reel alongside 8 other locations (Merced was one of three in California to be featured in these highlights). This is one of two locations that had Chuck's Red Base (The only other 2-Stage to have it was the
Windsor Cross location which closed in December 2005 with their 2-Stage). Sometime in 1995, Merced would close their doors. The show was put in storage for a year until it was sent to the
Chesapeake, VA (1528 Sam's Circle) location where it operated until June 26, 2023. In 1997, two years after the Merced's closure, the building would be replaced with Hometown Buffet which is now closed. In 2022, that building was demolished for Olive Garden which would open sometime in Early-Mid 2023. As of June 2023, Olive Garden still operates on the site.
Stages
Animatronics
Videos
| Link |
Description |
Filming Date |
| https://youtu.be/mqkHGgMxIKQ?t=94 |
The one of two known footages of Merced in a brief clip from a CEC cast member highlight reel (The store was featured alongside Wilmington, NC, San Jose, CA (2445 Fontaine Rd), Albuquerque, NM (4418 Wyoming Blvd), Mesa, AZ (856 S Alma School Rd), Dothan, Harrisburg, Erie, Tallahassee, & Tracy) . This footage shows the 2-Stage sometime after conversion from a C-Stage (Chuck E.'s House Facade) featuring no curtains. |
Mid 1992 |
| https://youtu.be/h6rztJ0IuO8 |
Store tour and various live show performances |
1992 |
