| Billy Bob's Wonderland | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 1989 |
| Owner(s) | Mark Hoffman [1] |
| Street address | 5 Cracker Barrel Dr |
| City | Barboursville |
| County | Cabell County |
| State | West Virginia |
| Postal/ZIP Code | 25701 |
| Country | USA |
| Coordinates | 38°24′55.5156″N82°15′19.3644″W / 38.415421000°N 82.255379000°W |
| Website | Official Website |
Billy Bob's Wonderland is a restaurant located in Barboursville, West Virginia, next to the Huntington Mall.
In 1989, a ShowBiz Pizza Place arcade and pizza restaurant location opened near the Huntington Mall in West Virginia. [2] Following the merger between ShowBiz Pizza and Chuck E Cheese in the 1980s, ShowBiz continued to struggle financially, and the company made the decision to unify both brands as Chuck E. Cheese's beginning in the early 1990s. [3] The ShowBiz Pizza location near the Huntington Mall severed relations with the parent company and began operating independently as Billy Bob's Wonderland in the early 1990s. [4]
An annual convention called Billy Con debuted in 2020 at Billy Bob's Wonderland. Patrons from around the country attended, as Billy Bob's Wonderland became one of the last public locations to feature the The Rock-afire Explosion. [1] It appealed to the nostalgia of older generations that experienced it as children, while video game franchises like Five Nights at Freddy's attracted interest from younger generations toward animatronics. [5] Three years later in 2023, Billy Bob's Wonderland is bought out by Fun City Arcade. [6]
As of 2024, Billy Bob's Wonderland holds one of the two last original operating Rock-afire Explosion bands in the United States, the other being at the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Illinois. [7] [8] This band includes Billy Bob Brockali, a bassist/vocalist, Looney Bird, a vocalist, Dook LaRue, a drummer/vocalist, Fatz Geronimo, a keyboardist/vocalist, Beach Bear, a guitarist/vocalist, Mitzi Mozzarella, a vocalist, and Rolfe DeWolfe and Earl Schmerle, a ventriloquist/comedy duo. [9]
The Rock-afire Explosion, a documentary, was partially filmed at Billy Bob's Wonderland. This documentary, about Chris Thrash, Aaron Fechter, and the remaining Rock-afire Explosion fan base, was released at film festivals and special screenings around the United States in the fall of 2008. [10] [11]
Barboursville is a village in Cabell County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 4,456 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area.
Chuck E. Cheese is an American entertainment restaurant chain founded on May 17, 1977 by Atari, Inc.'s co-founder Nolan Bushnell. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, each location features arcade games, amusement rides and musical shows in addition to serving pizza and other food items; former mainstays included ball pits, crawl tubes, and animatronic shows. The chain's name is taken from its main character and mascot, Chuck E. Cheese. The first location opened as Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose, California. It was the first family restaurant to integrate food with arcade games and animated entertainment, thus being one of the pioneers for the "family entertainment center" concept.
Audio-Animatronics is the registered trademark for a form of robotics animation created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subsequently expanded on and used by other companies. The robots move and often synchronise with audio by the assistance of an external sound system on the stage.
An animatronic is a mechatronic puppet controlled by a machine to move in a fluent way. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films, video games and in theme park attractions.
The Rock-afire Explosion (RAE) is an animatronic character band designed and manufactured by Creative Engineering, Inc. (CEI) for use in ShowBiz Pizza Place restaurants in the 1980s and early 1990s. The band's characters were various anthropomorphized animals, including a brown bear, a grey wolf and a silverback gorilla. They performed medleys of classic rock, pop, and country music, as well as original compositions and comedic skits.
Established in 1960 by the Grams family, the Volo Auto Museum is an automobile museum and collector car dealer in the Chicago suburb of Volo, Illinois, US. The museum contains an exhibit of collectors' autos from vintage to modern classics, with the main focus being American cars of the 1950–1980 period, over 50 famous TV and movie cars, cars previously owned by the rich and famous, and a large, one-of-a-kind, Disney and Looney Tunes characters display. Unique to this museum is that many of the vehicles on display are for sale. One of 50 exhibits on the 75-acre museum campus is a military-oriented "Armed Forces Exhibit," added in the late 2000s. Of the 4 antique malls on the museum grounds, one is reported to be haunted and has become a magnet for ghost hunters and sightings and an episode of the TV show Ghost Lab. The museum has its own TV series on History called Volo, House of Cars beginning in 2017.
Huntington Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in the village of Barboursville in Cabell County in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Currently the largest mall in West Virginia, it opened on 3 February 1981 and features more than 150 retailers. Anchor stores include Dick's Sporting Goods, JCPenney, Macy's, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, and a Cinemark theater. Other major tenants include Books-A-Million and Old Navy. The mall is owned by Cafaro Company of Youngstown, Ohio.
Bullwinkle's Entertainment, previously known as Family Fun Centers & Bullwinkle's Restaurant and formerly Bullwinkle's Family Food n' Fun is a chain of family entertainment centers. Locations feature a sit-down restaurant, complemented by arcade games, go-karts, bumper boats, mini golf, laser tag, a ropes course, a zip line, and small rides for children. Games and activities are generally themed around the company's namesake, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
Keys to Imagination is the second studio album by Greek keyboardist and composer Yanni, released on the Private Music label in 1986.
Mystery Fun House was an attraction complex in Orlando, Florida, United States. It was founded with the help of David A. Siegel on March 27, 1976, and operated through February 18, 2001. Located near International Drive on Major Boulevard across from Universal Orlando Resort, the fun house expanded over time to include a laser-tag facility, an arcade, a dinosaur-themed mini golf course, and other attractions.
Pullman Square is a lifestyle center in downtown Huntington, West Virginia, United States between 8th and 10th Street and 3rd Avenue and Veteran's Memorial Boulevard. It is located on what was known as the Superblock, a large urban renewal project that saw the demolishing of four city-square-blocks in 1970. The center opened in 2004, featuring approximately 20 stores, along with office space, restaurants, and a movie theater. It was developed by Metropolitan Partners.
ShowBiz Pizza Place, or simply ShowBiz Pizza, was an American family entertainment center and restaurant pizza chain founded in 1980 by Robert L. Brock and Creative Engineering (CEI). It emerged after a separation between Brock and owners of the Chuck E. Cheese franchise, Pizza Time Theatre. ShowBiz Pizza restaurants entertained guests through a large selection of arcade games, coin-operated rides, and animatronic stage shows.
Pizza Showtime was a family restaurant and entertainment centre operating in Perth, Western Australia from 1980 to 1984. Similar to the American Chuck E. Cheese chain it was a sit down pizza restaurant complemented by arcade games, and animatronic characters.
Sandy Hook is an unincorporated community in Marion County, Mississippi, United States.
Aaron Fechter is an American mechanical engineer, entrepreneur, voice actor, singer, and musician who owns and operates Creative Engineering, Inc. (CEI). He is best known as the creator of The Rock-afire Explosion, an animatronic show featuring a variety of characters created primarily for Showbiz Pizza Place restaurants throughout the 1980s. A fallout between Showbiz and CEI, along with the chain's dwindling revenue, led to the show's decline and eventual removal by the early 1990s.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Huntington, West Virginia, USA.
The Huntington Arcade is a historic shopping arcade located in Huntington, West Virginia, United States. The building is part of the Downtown Huntington Historic District.
The Cabell County Public Library is a public library between Huntington City Hall and Carnegie Public Luibrary, that serves and is located in Huntington, West Virginia, United States.
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