Robert L. Brock
Robert L. Brock (December 27, 1924[1] – June 7, 1998)[2] was an American businessman. He was born in Pawnee Rock, Kansas and graduated from Sterling High School and Kansas University. he started "Inn Operations" with a friend and sold it to Holiday Inns, Inc to manage "Topeka Inn Management". As chairman of TIM (later renamed Brock Hotel Corporation), the first and at the time largest franchisee of Holiday Inns, he founded ShowBiz Pizza Place in 1980 in Topeka, Kansas after becoming a Pizza Time Theatre franchisee.[3][4] He also started The Residence Inn line of hotels with Jack DeBoer. Marriott later bought the brand and renamed all locations "Residence Inn by Marriott".[5]
ShowBiz Pizza Place Inc. later superseded Pizza Time Theatre Inc. after SPP bought the PTT assets and intellectual property in 1984. All SPP stores were renamed Chuck E. Cheese's in 1992. In 1998 ShowBiz Pizza Place Inc. was renamed CEC Entertainment Inc., and continues to do business under this name.
References
- Obituary from Kansas Historical Society "Robert Brock". Kansas Historical Society. Archived from the original on December 18, 2017. Retrieved 2017-12-19.
Born: December 27, 1924, Pawnee Rock, Kansas.
- Lew Ferguson (June 9, 1998). "Longtime Democratic booster Brock dies of cancer 06/09/98". CJ Online National News. Topeka Capital-Journal. Retrieved 2014-12-30.
- Showbiz Pizza Place College materials
- CEC Entertainment, Inc. - Company History
- Now and then: The history of Residence Inn