Where'd the Circus Pizza chain get their shows and showtapes?

[PaulKTF]

Was Circus Pizza comprised of former Showbiz locations that were no longer SPP franchises and still had the RAEs/showtapes left in them as-is? I can't imagine that would be the case, right?

If they were all "new" and not former SPP's,, where did they obtain their Rock-Afires and showtape material from? It seemed to have been a small chain with about a half-dozen locations so I'm just curious hwo they obtained os many Rock-Afires and where they got the showtapes? The secondary market? But what are the odds of getting that many complete shows on the secondary market?? Directly from CEI? A combination of both?

One of them even had a Klunk/Santa (!). That was unexpected...

[RetroGirl]

Someone with more of an understanding of the history can correct me if I'm wrong, but after Creative Engineering's agreement with Showbiz was over, since they owned all the rights to the Rock-afire, they were able to sell Rock-afire explosions to other restaurants and entertainment centers, including show material. I'm guessing Circus Pizza was one of those restaurants.

[CEC3066]

if they were new, they would have gotten everything from CEI as Aaron had quite the surplus of complete shows still in his warehouse

[ralphie]

From 1987 onward, Circus was run by a lot of the same people who ran the ShowBiz franchise in Minneapolis/St. Paul prior. In '87 when that franchise decided to pull out of Minnesota (largely due to strong competition from the two original Circus locations), a lot of those ShowBiz people got together with Circus. They got the Rock-afire Explosion into the existing Circus stores by using the shows from the closed ShowBizes in Brooklyn Center and Bloomington. Circus had stronger locations in Maplewood and Brooklyn Park where those shows were transferred. They also decided to takeover the ShowBiz in W. St. Paul and convert that into a third Circus. Shortly thereafter, the MN C.E.C. franchise decided to give up too, so Circus pounced and took three of their good locations in Blaine, New Hope, and Burnsville. By the end of 1987 there would be six Circuses. The former ShowBiz people (now working for Circus) used their S.P.P. connections to get Rock-afire shows from other closing ShowBizes around the country. I know two of the three sets they needed came from closing stores in Sacramento and Denver. I'm not sure where they got the last one. Circus also maintained a really good relationship with Creative Engineering. Their showtapes came from a combination of the old ShowBiz days and newer material purchased from Creative. Brooklyn Park and Burnsville even got Show Selectors by the early 90s. Sadly, it all went away in 1998 when C.E.C. came back to town and bought all the Circuses, shuttering New Hope, Burnsville, and Brooklyn Park. Maplewood had been bought out a couple years before by a department store for their space. C.E.C. converted Edina, Blaine, and W. St. Paul.

[PaulKTF]

That's all pretty interesting, Ralphie- thanks! Ah; how great it must have been to have a nice little chain of well-run FECs.