Pizza Showtime

Pizza Showtime was a family restaurant and entertainment centre operating in Perth, Western Australia from 1980 to 1984.[1] Similar to the American Chuck E. Cheese chain it was a sit down pizza restaurant complemented by arcade games, and animatronic characters.

The restaurant was located in the now demolished Grand Theatre building[2] located at 148 Murray Street (a site now occupied by Grand Theatre Lane, showcasing a small cafe, and multiple storefronts).[3] It featured 'space invaders' style game consoles built into the customer tables (operated with tokens[4]) and an animatronic stage show featuring a dog named 'Bert Newhound', a piano playing kangaroo[5] known as 'Melton Pom' (next to joey), singing koalas with 'Lottie' being the lead, a wise cracking horse by the name of 'Ned Kelly' a dingo named 'Ringo Dingo', and a fiddle playing American bear who went unnamed. The animatronic robots cost "in excess of $100,000"[6] and are claimed to have had "more movements than any Disney character".[6] Australian actor Jack Thompson provided the voice for the "Ringo Dingo" character.

Pizza Showtime closed down around 1984 and the robot characters were dismantled and sent to Sydney.[6] The restaurant was originally intended as a starter for a chain of 'Pizza Theatres' around Australia, owned and operated by Allied & Leisure Industries, along with Paul Gregory under the supervision of A&L founder Malcolm Steinberg, who is the current owner of the Timezone arcade game franchise.[6] The building was subsequently converted to an Asian foodhall[7] and was demolished in 1990.[2]