Circus Playhouse & Food Emporium Tokens
Established 1982 · Other
Circus Playhouse & Food Emporium was a small early-1980s chain of circus-themed family entertainment centers modeled on the Chuck E. Cheese concept, combining pizza dining with a video-game arcade, a ball pit, and a full-sized 16-horse merry-go-round. Its centerpiece was an animatronic stage show built by AVG and mounted on a 42-foot wall stage, fronted by an eight-character band: Lionel the Lion, Lola the Leopard, Tex S. Tiger, Charlie Chimp, Ellie Elephant, Batt E. Bird, Barney Bear, and Gerry Giraffe. Five known locations (including Hollywood, Florida and Roswell, Georgia) opened and closed between 1982 and 1990, with the last shutting its doors in 1990. The brand briefly resurfaced in 2016 when a businessman who owned a complete surviving band reopened a Circus Playhouse at the Euclid Square Mall, but that mall was later demolished; preservation of the original animatronics has since been carried on by private collectors.
Why these tokens matter
Early-1980s AVG-built circus-themed FEC chain (1982-1990) in the Chuck E. Cheese mold; a peripheral animatronic-pizza token issuer whose surviving band lives on through collectors.