Pizza Time Theatre Showtape

Winchester Chuck E. Cheese V1.

Winchester Chuck E. Cheese V1.

(1977)
Release: May 1, 1977 - Aug. 12, 1977
Released On:
Credits:
  • Crusty the Cat VA: Ed Bogas
Downloads:

The Pizza Time Theatre Showtape was the first ever Pizza Time Theatre showtape to be made, premiering with the opening of the San Jose, CA (370 S Winchester Blvd) location on May 17, 1977. The showtape debuted the original Pizza Time Players, including the short-lived Crusty the Cat.

History

Big Cheese Birthday Show

The first production work on the showtape was a 2-track tape containing a showtape concept demo recording produced on October 7, 1976.[3] The tape features ‘The Big Cheese’ (whom later on became Chuck E. Cheese), and Crusty the Cat performing dialogue. The audio would be produced at Wally Heider Studio (245 Hyde St., San Francisco, CA, 94102). The script for the session was written by Robert “Bob” Allan Black under the direction of Atari, Gene Landrum, and Nolan Bushnell. The producer for the show would be Ed Bogus Productions (680 Beach St. Suite 495, San Francisco, CA 94109).(4)(3)

Demo Recordings

Sometime between late 1976 and early 1977 more demo tracks would be recorded, this time featuring the full cast of characters. The tracks has John Widelock as most of the characters, with Scott Paulin making a small appearence as Jasper in the theme song, and the Warblettes being voiced by Buffy Sainte-Marie.[1] These tracks include:

The demo tapes take a majority of their music and skits from other albums directly. The Can-Can skit directly uses ‘Offenbach - Morpheus’ from the album ‘Spike Jones Is Murdering the Classics’. Crusty’s French singing is of Spike’s voice, alongside Spike’s sneezing skit at the end being recontextualized as Pasqually.[5] The Pasqually Show has the opening car skit taken from ‘Liszt - Rhapsody From Hunger(y)’ from the same ‘Spike Jones Is Murdering the Classics’ album, followed by the main melody sung over ‘Funiculi, Funicula’ from the album ‘Italia Mia’ by Mantovani.[6]

Release

The showtape would be previewed early on May 1st, 1977 for the Atari Coin-Op Division. The Corporate Building and Pinball Division would preview on May 4th, and the Consumer Division would see it on May 5th. The general public would see the showtape on opening day on May 17th.[5]

D2 Tape / CD Recording

At some point after the original showtape was produced, the original audio of the recording sessions, alongside edited and final audio for multiple Winchester store showtapes would be copied to D2 tape and eventually CDs, which is the only currently known surviving record of that era’s contents. The segments on the tape included the original voice demos for the showtape, along with original copies of reference songs in the showtape. Some of the showtape tracks are also edited versions, which feature cuts, updates, and raw music tracks.[1]

Segments

The showtape’s segments and order isn’t entirely clear, though a copyright record confirms a few of the tracks were potentially on the tape:[2]

Other segments from the CDs may have appeared on the showtape.

The Gospel of St. Pong Revisited - Vol 4, April 1977 provides additional clues, stating there were ten main skits total, being:

Four additonal special tracks could be played, described as ‘special animated noise distracters programmed by the bartender’, presuming that “programmed” implies scheduled, or potentially referring to the fact they would use Pasqually’s announcement speakers to specify the occasion.

References

  1. http://www.showbizpizza.com/review/ptt/1977_crusty.html
  2. http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/doctitles.cgi?V1704P125
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2cQFyz12hA
  4. https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscosanf1978rlpo/page/n373/mode/2up?q=%22Bogas+Productions%22
  5. https://archive.org/details/the-gospel-of-st.-pong-revisited-vol-4-april-1977
  6. https://youtu.be/AEklLTqgdQg?t=1976
  7. https://youtu.be/Unm8FPZhFDc?t=2255
  8. https://youtu.be/AEklLTqgdQg?t=347