Worst Graphic Design. Guest Post by Robotnik
Robo. Have had a request to cover the outside, or at least the silent bells of La Carillion. Like your attack on the innards. This is a truly appalling piece of design, backed up with equally poor implementation- ed. Robotnik says…
Pancakes at CarillonThis has so much wrong with it that, like a meal based solely around variations on a pancake, it’s difficult to know where to start.
Note the clip-art chef so engrossed in his Vileda dish-cloth tossing he hasn’t even noticed the terrible kerning under his feet. Or is he the “Pat Carillon” of the title? Marvel at the yellow-cake radio buttons that bear no alignment with their labels. Go to the site and try clicking where it says ‘click!’ Hilarious! And just what does the mysterious ‘Adventure in Paradise’ allude to?Once upon a time this place had an identity as I recall, some Belle Epoch tart uttering the word ‘perfect’, and yes, there she is relegated to the small-print, as if fallen on hard times and scrounging for scraps by the kitchen door. Odd that in a town of impermanent eateries, of here-today-gone-tomorrow hamburger huts, that PAC, which can claim a quarter century of continuous ‘caking doesn’t make more of what could genuinely be regarded as ‘tradition’.
Superb post in word and pic Robotnik. Also like the button that lights up a $ sign which opens a new window for specials – A new window that delivers you a blank orange rectangle. I believe the “tart” used to say “Lovely”. This rivals many of the world’s worst websites. Straight to worst of the worst.
The Worst of Perth 
Heheheheheheheheh….. Just returned from my Adventure in Paradise and find myself truly speechless. Robotnik well done. This is WWW @ it’s Worst.
LikeLike
About Us –
“Forget the old ideas about pancakes and maple syrup and take a curiosity trip up to Level 1, Carillon City Arcade (Hay Street Mall End) to see what imagination can do.”
Didn’t curiosity kill the cat? God help us if this is what has replaced the the “old ideas about pancakes and maple syrup” PURRRFECT
Well – I think I have seen enough of what their imagination can do.
LikeLike
How is “Miss Maud” these days? Still Single.
Wasn’t she somewhere in the Carillion up there?
LikeLike
There was a huge Miss Mauds resturant on level one of the Carillion. It had a massive wooden viking carved on the wall outside it at the top of the esculator. No one seems to remember this place but I do because we went there often and my parents loved the place. It was the ‘newer’ resturant and much bigger than the one on Murray Street. Was there all through the 80s and into the mid 90s. Always wondered why it closed.
LikeLike
According to Miss Maud herself, swinggall. “In 1971 “Miss Maud” was born. We opened our doors in City Arcade (today named Carillon City). This was a genuine Swedish Pastry House with the heart of my grandmother’s kitchen, the place I had spent many hours watching, smelling, tasting and baking wonderful delights.
Perth fell in love with my Swedish culinary magic. We conjured up so many delicious foods and pastries, cakes and tortes. People could even watch the master pastry chef at work in our tiny bakery through a small viewing window, much like the bakery near my home in Stockholm.
Two years later I opened the Miss Maud Smörgåsbord Restaurant on the corner of Pier and Murray st.”
LikeLike
No. Miss Maud is up on the corner of Murray St and Pier St, much closer to Royal Perth Hospital.
It’s Better that way.
LikeLike
’tis the Pancake Parlour (TM) wench… are they related or is this a lawsuit waiting to happen?
Good old Pancake Parlour. Many happy memories of the Cottesloe franchise back in 1985.
LikeLike
I forgot to bookmark the page when visiting yesterday. bugger.
id since forgotten what the vouchers section had to offer
and now all ive got is a red box of specials. can anyone help me.
please.
LikeLike
If you can buy an orange rectangle cheaper, we’ll give you half of your triangle back.
LikeLike
Does anyone remember a pizza place in the city in the late 70’s – early 80’s that featured dancing animals (with people inside them. As in dressed up – inside them)? A bit similar Max Kay’s theatre restaurant!
LikeLike
Yes – I remember going to a place in the City with dancing koalas on stage. It was a two storey building and I vaguely remember something about silver coin tokens at the restaurant/pizza bar too.
LikeLike
Pizza Showtime
LikeLike
Pizza Showtime restaurant?
LikeLike
It was in Murray Street. Between Myers and Barrack Street. Oh the memories…
LikeLike
OMG!! I was starting to think that it was all just an awful dream – no-one I know has ever heard of it. You’re brilliant!
LikeLike
Me too. I have memories of this eating pizza a in a two storey place, with huge mechanical koalas dancing on stage. I can also remember silver coin tokens, which I thought were to make the animals dance but they must have been for playing games.
Glad someone remembers it too – no one I know, including my auntie who used to take me, remembers it now.
LikeLike
Extensive thread on Pizza showtime.
LikeLike
I won‘t ask how you ended up on a five year old thread about Pizza Showtime.
LikeLike
Pizza showtime was awesome. I’m pretty sure the animals were not people dressed up tho. They were mechanical. Animatronics of some sort.
I remember the games upstairs and the animated moose heads sticking out of each wall and the table top galaxian arcade games you could play whilst eating your pizza
LikeLike
Yes I think you’re right. They were mechanical.
LikeLike
Pizza Showtime was excellent yes. Miss Maud’s was also awesome…the Kings Hotel (?) also had a good smorgasboard. Went to a 21st at Max Kay’s…I think there was a place called the Pancake Parlour somewhere near Belmont…I used to enjoy pancake meals. Oh this blog is a real discovery. Ok…here’s one not quite in the same category…it was another glitzy venue attached to a reception centre.
La Tenda!
LikeLike
I was just discussing La Tenda yesterday La Plaza. I had to do some video work there a couple of times. Couldn’t remember the street. Geddes? I remember it burnt down a couple of times.
LikeLike
The owner of La Tenda, Vince Todaro, died recently.
LikeLike
Hmmm can’t remember where TBH It did burn down at least once, I remember my dad’s hairdressers on Hay Street telling him how it broke the owners’ heart. I went to a Yugoslav wedding in the reception centre once. There were racy ads on television for it that featured showgirls, as I recall.
LikeLike
Oh – of course you know what also had a fire at least once…. heh heh
LikeLike
Pizza Showtime, La Plaza Bentley, think I’m going to cry.
Pancake Parlour at Broadway Fair was a huge night out for my family in the late 70’s.
Savoury pancakes for dinner, followed by pancakes with a blob of icecream on top for dessert, all washed down with a coke spider, then throw up in the playground carriage in the dimly lit mews-style central courtyard before jumping in the kingswood station wagon for the half-hour drive home across the river.
LikeLike
I just can’t stop thinking about 70’s restaurants now.
There was a really classy restaurant just up the road a bit east from Miss Mauds, called ‘Gluttons Paradise’. I think it might have been all you can eat rather than fine dining a la carte.
And the tastefully named ‘Franco’s’ on the corner of Bennett and Hay St. Imagine thinking it was a good idea to name a German restaurant ‘H*****’s’.
LikeLike
So does any one know where Pizza showtime was in Perth.. I was young.
I was really disappointed when it shut down.
LikeLike
I remember the kangaroo playing the piano to the elton john song crocadile rock and a joey comes out of the top of the piano singing the la,la,la chorus.
I think there were dancing girl koala’s as well on stage.
LikeLike
It was in Hay Street Mall wasn’t it? You went up a level…
LikeLike
I think where the myer complex ends.The barrack street end of Muray St mall I think.
LikeLike
Actually I think you’re right.
LikeLike
Pancakes at Carillion suffers from from nasty 70s clipart in the actual store, but the pancakes are delicious. There used to be a pancake parlour at Broadway Fair? Which reminds me, KK’s at Broadway has been sold, now there’s some architecture that needs documenting before the new owners remodel it.
LikeLike
On the subject of ’70s restaurants – Dirty Dicks (no apostrophe required, obviously) in Wembley, anyone? One of the staff – possibly a Jester – threatened to go Medieval on my mate’s ass for drunkenly throwing a breadroll at the King, and was unmoved by protestations of period authenticity. I mean, a place called Dirty Dicks would clearly seek a minimum level of dignity and decorum from its patrons, wouldn’t it?
LikeLike
There are two or three Dirty Dick’s (apostrophe needed) franchises still operating…
http://www.dirtydicks.com.au/
Gaze ‘pon the horror… or relive the memories.
LikeLike
I was a wench at Dirty Dick’s. Got bitten by a customer and i didnt go back.
LikeLike
I was a serving wench at Dirty Dicks till a customer bit me and I never went back.
LikeLike
There were names given out to diners. Dick Swisher was my favourite. I went down Cambridge Street trying to remember the location of Ole Dirtys, but couldn’t remember exactly.
LikeLike
I think its a Chinese restaurant now. Or is it Indian?
LikeLike
The ‘entertainment’ usually involved some pissed-up spotty apprentice on his 21st being roped into participating in a bedroom farce performed by the staff.
LikeLike
“drunkenly throwing a breadroll at the King, and was unmoved by protestations of period authenticity.”
Surely period authenticity would decree that your mate would be sent to the Tower, tortured until he confessed to treason and finally hung drawn and quartered for throwing a bread roll at the King. I think he may have got off lightly.
And Yes L.A as you know, I worked there for many years while at uni. Being hit by a yorkshire pudding soaked in gravy is not particularly pleasant at the best of times but the gig was great fun and paid well enough.
It is half way down Cambridge st on the right hand side. Not sure if it still is running any more.
LikeLike
Phew, talk about deja vu. I guess if I’m having fun, it must mean it’s time to pay up and go home. This is Perth, after all.
LikeLike
Hoooray, I have finally found something on the net about Pizza Show Time, for years I thought I had imagined this place, ahhh the memories – they’re real!!!!!!
LikeLike
Just so you all know:
My Dad was the man behind Pizza Showtime. It was originally a theatre before it was turned into PST. The animals were moved by air-electronics. The kangaroo was called Melton Pom and little Joey came out of the piano. The 3 koalas were the koala Sisters. There was a bear in the corner that came from Disney in the States. There were 2 charaters on the wall that spoke to each other. It had Atari games in the tables and the pizza wasn’t bad.
Oh and if you remember the story – the roof couldn’t really open when it was a theatre :-) and Greta Garbo never stepped foot in the place.
I was about 10 at the time and I thought it was really cool.
Last I heard it was closed and taken over by an oriental food place.
C’est la vie!
LikeLike
Ahh… Pizza Showtime… First went there in 1980 as a 15-year-old just after arriving in perth from NZ. Absolutely loved the place! Playing the “spacies” on those classic game-cum-table Atari machines.
I recall the pizza was really pretty good – way more cheese and pepperoni than you’ll see on a modern pizza. Sure it was tacky – but isn’t that what makes places like that unique? man… to think Murray Street where PST was situated, was a two way street back then (pedestrian Mall today).
Other Perth people might recall the Sun Markets – just a few doors down …dingey, yet nice Asian food. Back around then Mango’s was happening, The Edge nightclub, Exit, dirty movies at the Savoy, Chicago’s, the Muso’s Club, Pinnochios, the Underground, the Arcadia, that hot-dog Mini van that used to do the club beat (so hungry…), Red Lion, Golden Rail, a few might recall Pineapple Dance – a brief gay venue before it became the Brass Monkey, Fridays, Johnny Rocket’s, Boko’s ‘grab-a-granny’ bar, Henry Africa’s, The Racquet Club, The Pentagon, Kites at the Merlin (now Hyatt), Remote Control (another short-lived gay venue).
Further afield there was the Noonkenbah Hotel, Overdrive at the Cloverdale and Kevin Bloody Wilson used to do lunchtimes at the Morley Hotel where you could get the roast of the day for $1.50.
I have heaps more memories but I’m waffling and time is short… nice to stumble on this site!
Cheers…
Shaun
LikeLike
Shaun, the hot-dog guy was “Dan Dan the hot-dog man” I think he was the most popular event of the night
LikeLike
Thanks Shaun nice trip down a memory lane full of dodgy venues … Sun Markets was great, it was the first place I ever saw one of those multi-compartment tin trays heaped with nuclear yellow noodles, fried rice with ham & peas in and neon s&s pork…
And eating outdoors! In an alley! At night! I had never heard of such a concept.
LikeLike
Poor, poor Lisa.
Some of the best (rarely the most expensive) restaurants that I visited in Italy had at least some of their tables in the back alley.
Great on warm nights – remember that dinnertime *starts* at 9.30p.m. in the Summer – where the lane has been shaded from the afternoon sun and is aligned with the evening breezes.
Such fond memories of a well spent start to my 7th. decade.
LikeLike
Yeh Rolly don’t get me wrong, my memories are extremely fond… Sun Markets was the height of bohemian sophistication, something you could do on a Friday night before hitting the midnight Rocky Horror showing at the Kimberley Cinema in Barrack St.
LikeLike
The thing I remember about Pizza Showtime (I would have been 5 or 6 at the time, so my memory is shady) was a game upstairs called “The Driver” (I later found out). Apparently theyre as rare as gold hen’s teeth now, but the game was crap cos the movements on the wheel made no difference to what happened onscreen :D
I also remember the animatronics. That stuff was awe inspiring for 6 year old.
I really hate the fact that my kids will grow up without having experienced this sort of thing – the 70s were an amazing time – can anyone else remember KISS iceypoles? Atari 2600 (or if you were posh, colecovision)? Riding your bike *everywhere* at the age of 7, with absolutely no fear?
Any more stories Melton? Why’d your dad end up closing it anyway?
LikeLike
Over the last few years I have regularly done searches on the net for the Pizza Showtime Theatre, but have never found anything. I’m so glad to have FINALLY found something, as like many of you I was almost beginning to think I imagined it. No-one I know remembers it – how could you forget such a place? Those were good times.
And does anyone remember El Caballo Blanco? With the horses and stuff – but they also had, what I like to refer to as the ‘Death Tobogan’ Scariest thing I’ve ever been on. And the ‘Rampage’ water slide thingy.
LikeLike
I recently met guy that retained deep emotional scars after having been stuck on the chairlift thingy at El Caballo Blanco when he was twelve (in budgie smugglers no less).
Apparently, as the chair in which he was riding stalled above a lake, they had to rescue him with a helicopter, the whole event lasting around 3 hours.
LikeLike
Ahh, the death toboggan. So much better than the Adventure World toboggan. Crazy how unsafe that ride was. When your a 13 y.o it was great fun…
LikeLike
I think the building is still there at El Caballo.
LikeLike
OMG El Caballo….I worked there too, after Dirty Dicks.
LikeLike
Did a horse bite you?
LikeLike
I saw an ad for EBC and I’m pretty sure they were reviving the horses for a mother’s day special.
LikeLike
The whole place is still there. Something must be happening there as I keep having to direct worryingly lost motorists back to Great Eastern Highway in order that they may find enlightenment behind the white horse.
LikeLike
Yeah i think they still do horsey stuff at El Caballo – and it’s got a hotel or something. But they don’t have the danger rides anymore :) Shame really.
LikeLike
It was a conference centre for a while, and may still be for all I know. I suspect that its remoteness from anything resembling a brothel would count against it on that score though.
LikeLike
[It was a conference centre for a while, and may still be for all I know. I suspect that its remoteness from anything resembling a brothel would count against it on that score though.]
The Horses were re-introduced about 12-18 months ago and I recall going there in the 70’s and seeing them perform to a soundtrack of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass :-)
LikeLike
ANother snippet of info regarding Pizza Showtime…
The video games took “tokens” – they were the cheapest video games in the city! Instead of 20 cents, they worked out at some odd number – you know, 15 tokens for a dollar or something like that.
Other Video Game aracades in Perth CBD no longer in existence:
Split Second (Barrack Street)
Split Second?? (downstairs William Street)
TimeZone x 2 on murray street (one in the mall, one not)
TimeZone (Hay Street, west of the mall)
..there were more!
LikeLike
oh dear – the memories King Brown. $10 would keep you going for a whole afternoon of gaming (and some food if you stopped long enough). I must admit that I was hopelessly addicted to any form of arcade gaming for many years. If there was a deli, fish and chips, video bar that had a game around the Subiaco/West Leederville/Wembley area, I knew about it.
Split second – your right – on Barrack in the bad lands of town… remember the drunks and gamblers around the TAB and Railway Hotel? Don’t forget Strombekers (slot car track upstairs or outback) who kept with the 20c theme while Split Second up’d their rates to 40c. I remember when Stroms got OutRun – $1 a game… insane.
Anyone recall the third arcade that opened on Barrack St over the road from Stroms and Split Second? Wasn’t there for too long. Would have been around 1986/87.
Latecomer to that area Barrack St area was Orbit.
Stroms also did a move to Hay Street in the late 80s that some may remember. I vaguely remember that they only took the slot car track there and got rid of the arcade games?
Yes, other Split Second downstairs with Timezone upstairs on William St.
Timezone on Murray St near old Mango’s nightclub. Building is there still – think it is a St Vinnies-something along those lines.
Last Timezone for Perth on Murray St (mall area over the road from Myer – it also had a dodgey rear entrance from a laneway.)
Cinema City -they also had their own spacies for some time. Good for some Hyper Olympics action (jumper over the hand for the sprint).
So much fun…
LikeLike
TImezone still lives on opposite the Northbridge Plaza!
I remember all those old places, yes… even raced slotcars at Strombeckers. Wow, long time since I’ve even thought of that place!
Anyone remember Simulations/Kite City for board games, RC stuff and RPGs?
LikeLike
Here’s the old Barrack Street track when it was sold in 2007, DL.
LikeLike
Hey Snuff, That’s awsome!! I was just talking to people about Strombekers at work & that photo just takes me back to my wasted youth in the 80’s. I just can’t believe it closed as late at 2007!
LikeLike
You’re right, Clinton. Strombecker Raceways closed well before then. Just to be clear, the track was sold (again) on eBay in 2007.
LikeLike
My father, Warren Cummins, co-owned Strombecker Raceways with Arthur Hurst. My memories are so strong as a 4 year old in the 1970’s, crawling under the track for hours looking for all the 20cent pieces that had been dropped by the punters. They used to stock model cars etc and I spent many more hours playing with these out the back room. Then, as a 6 year old, I used to wander the city streets by myself. Remember this was a big country town in the 70’s! I’d go to Boans (Myers) for a hot cinnamon donut, play on the escalators, then across to city arcade where the elevator man (remember those days!!) would let me press the buttons for people. Then back to the little bar next door to strombeckers on Barrack for a Pinky ice cream before turning back up to my parents (my mum Liz worked Saturday’s too at Strombeckers) for an afternoon nap. Ah the full life of a Perth child in the 1970’s…PS I too recall Pizza Showtime, next to Boans on Murray St as a wonderful childhood memory.
LikeLike
I remember going to the Strombeckers track in Great Eastern Highway Rivervale back in the mid 70 ‘s as a 13year old. There were 2 big tracks to race your own cars on and also 1 track where you used a steering wheel to move the cars on the track. The bloke who ran the place back then was a guy called Alan Hurst. Sometime in the late 70’s the track closed . I remember finding Alan back at the Barrack st track possibly in the late 80’s. Still have my cars which i briefly raced at the track near Cherokee village on Wanneroo road in the 90’s. Anyway some great memories.
Cheers Rod.
LikeLike
My father, Warren Cummins, co-owned Strombecker Raceways with Arthur Hurst. My memories are so strong as a 4 year old in the 1970’s, crawling under the track for hours looking for all the 20cent pieces that had been dropped by the punters. They used to stock model cars etc and I spent many more hours playing with these out the back room. Then, as a 6 year old, I used to wander the city streets by myself. Remember this was a big country town in the 70’s! I’d go to Boans (Myers) for a hot cinnamon donut, play on the escalators, then across to city arcade where the elevator man (remember those days!!) would let me press the buttons for people. Then back to the little bar next door to strombeckers on Barrack for a Pinky ice cream before turning back up to my parents (my mum Liz worked Saturday’s too at Strombeckers) for an afternoon nap. Ah the full life of a Perth child in the 1970’s…PS I too recall Pizza Showtime, next to Boans on Murray St as a wonderful childhood memory.
LikeLike
There was a dingy one where the Bra Bar is now.
LikeLike
[TimeZone x 2 on murray street (one in the mall, one not)
TimeZone (Hay Street, west of the mall)]
I think both were shut down because of problems with the Yoof and kids who wagged school.
Can recall hearing many a job on the scanner for those locations.
LikeLike
Does any one remember the Red Rooster-esque “Chicken Spot” ?
I got the chicken pox after eating it. True story.
LikeLike
Yep,
I remember eating at Chicken Spot. When I was a kid I had this odd penchant for collecting napkins and crap from places like that and I still have a bag full of kids stuff with some Red Spot ‘Moist Towelettes’. I remember Red Bull Burgers too. Man…if only they had stayed around, they would have made a fortune having their name bought out later :)
LikeLike
Hey Devnell and other PST fans,
From what I understand after speakin to my dad the guy who actually owned PST got caught up in a little money laundering and fled back to the States.
It was a real shame cause PST was doing great and didn’t need to close down.
I came back to Perth in April (first time in 23 years) and the place has changed a lot in some areas and hardly any in others. I tried to find the PST building but wasn’t quite sure which one it was. The old theatre architecture has gone – I think.
When I was a kid a loved Red Rooster’s Hawaiian pack. We went to RR when we came over and I was really disappointed. I guess KFC took over.
Glad to see you guys still have Hungary Jacks and haven’t changed it to Burger King.
I look forward to coming back again and relive some more great memories of WA.
Bye for now,
Melton Pom
LikeLike
Perth’s Pizza Showtime Theatre for those who wondered, was located in what was originally an early 1900’s cinema known as the ‘Grand Theatre’. You might find old archive pictures of it around the place. When the cinema closed PST converted it, which was why it basically resembled a real old theatre.
After PST closed it became an asian food place before it was eventually demolished. The site is now where Woolworths supermarket has been built in Murray Street Mall opposite David Jones.
I’ve still got some of the ‘gold’ tokens somewhere. I found info on the net about the USA franchise several years ago out of curiosity, and it was related to a business known as ‘Chuck E Cheese’ or ‘Pizzatime Theatre’. Back then I found some links to US fan sites all about it, I’ll try to recover them for posting for you all. Great memories of a very short-lived attraction.
And anybody remember Perth’s ‘Action Park Mirrabooka’? It was at the back of the ice rink next to where ‘World 4 Kids’ toyshop used to be, now just a vacant sandy block.
LikeLike
More Pizza Showtime stuff:
Found that US site I mentioned which has all the PST Theatre backstory (I don’t know if Perth cracks a mention though, it was just one small part of an international franchise plan)
visit http://www.showbizpizza.com
Have fun.
LikeLike
Blainie @ 48 – Yes I remember Chicken Spot. They had a store out Balga way when I was living in Greenwood and working in the band at La Tenda (I can tell you a tale or two).
The pianist formed a working relationship with an advertising guy (names withheld to protect the guilty) so we found ourselves doing jingles for various companies. One of them was Chicken Spot. I’m not sure how much credit we can take, but after the campaign using “Spot on, Chicken Spot” as the jingle, the company went belly up and became Chicken Treat.
LikeLike
Chika Chik Chika Chik Chika Chicken Spot
One forty nine and that’s the lot ($1.49????)
Potatoes peas and gravy too
Let a Chicken Spot chiken dinner satisfy you….
Ah, the power of a carefully crafted jingle.
LikeLike
I still remember $1.99, 3 pieces of chicken, gravy mashed potatoes and a bun…
LikeLike
What…..Pancake’s at the Carrillion is still around?
Wow… Pizza Show time……fascinating concept to draw in the crowds…I never went BUT I did want to…sniff…sniff…
King Brown:
There was also:
Premier Ice rink…….Bulwer Street and Stirling(next to an outdoor movie theater(This site is still there).
Barrack Street: Strombekers……60’s & 70’s ..great for racing slot cars upstairs of downstairs “amusement parlor”.
Crystal Palace……..70’s near Mis Mauds……became a Timezone.
Orbit…………80’s opposite the now Medina in Barrack Street.
Rat’s(skating) Corner of Milligan and Murray Streets….down the road form original Fast Eddy’s
Food:
Bernie’s Cafe…………
Big Als Sandwiches Barrack Street(Cine center)that I think became Subway.
RED BULL burgers……hmmmm.
Romano’s Caberet in Stirling Street….became the EXIT night Club in the 90’s……
The ZANZIBAR…….out of the 60’s
LikeLike
Melton Pom and Oldtimer please email me regarding Pizza Show Time greenforest_elf@yahoo.com.au
LikeLike
I was the originator and creator of Pizza Show Time.
Let me just put the record straight. It was not part of any international franchise. Pizza Time Theatre and Chuck-e-Cheese were in no way connected with my creation. I designed and created all the characters myself (I still have the original drawings and press cuttings). All the characters were air animatronics. The voice for the ‘dingo’ on the wall was the very famous movie star, Jack Thompson. The only connection Pizza Showtime had with America was that the characters were made by the Marquis Brothers in Connecticut, USA.
The finances behind the project were from Leisure and Alled Industries Pty Ltd, owners of Time Zone, and I was under contract to them to design the whole show. The entrance to Pizza Showtime was created by John Franke, famous Disney creator of the Tiki birds in Disneyworld.
I had a soundtrack recording of the story and the show but unfortunately, it has been lost.
Two companies in Perth played a big part in Pizza Showtime, one was the creator of the interior, a very creative company, but unfortunately time has erased the name from my memory. The second involved was an advertising company, again my memory has lapsed but they created Melton Pom’s voice, wrote the lyrics and produced the soundtrack.
The architects were John Silbert of Krantz & Sheldon, Adelaide Terrace. ,I wonder if they still exist.
I was at the last cinema showing at The Grand and the same night we started pulling out all the seats and floorboards.
From that day on for nearly two years, I hardly left the place.
LikeLike
Mr P. There are always so many qustions about Pizza Showtime. Would love to feature scans of the press cuttings and particularly the character drawings. Can you scan or take a pic of some? Would be very popular.
LikeLike
I went to Pizza Showtime once, in 1983, for lunch.
I don’t recall seeing the show, but I have often wondered if I imagined it.
After 26 years… I have an answer.
I am chuffed over this.
LikeLike
OMG I knew Ruth Krantz!!!
LikeLike
You’re having a good time Viola!
LikeLike
I really hope Mr Pizza will come through with some images. Many people wonder whether they dreamed it.
LikeLike
Don’t you worry Lazzy Aussie – my Dad will come through!
LikeLike
I love the sound of Pizza Showtime, would have liked to have had my wedding there, i’m serious ! Someone mentioned Action Park, remember it well but never went, the ads showed an octopus and roller and those balls that you leave the kids in while you get lost in ikea. Other fun/amusement/theme parks or remnants there of. Something with dolphins in Yanchep, Dizzy Lamb Farce, and Adventure World once had the most amazing shooting gallery…
LikeLike
i mean amusement/wildlife/theme park, being that a fun and amusement park would be quite similar and would only differ by one being more full of whimsy…but which one?
and i never posted again…
LikeLike
Stan if that’s your cup of tea, I beleive Kahuna Wildlife Park is still functional, complete with revolving restaraunt. Perhaps a vowel renewal ceremony is in order.
LikeLike
thanks shazza, i reckon youse is a you-beaut sort of shelia, by the way that “something in yanchep with dolphins” wildlife park i was trying to think of was apparently called ‘Atlantis’, sadly the place did not live up to the name, but really how could it ?…
LikeLike
I seem to recall that someone poisoned the dolphins.
LikeLike
I’m pretty sure that the poisoned dolphins were at Underwater World in the Hillarys boat harbour.
LikeLike
Taken from 10 June 2000 Herald-Sun via factiva :
POLICE will investigate the poisoning of three dolphins at Perth’s Underwater World.
A five-month investigation by Conservation and Land Management officers revealed the dolphins – Mila, 27, Rajah, 26, and Echo, 11, – had died of heart attacks caused by poisoning.
The Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins died between December 27 and 31 last year.
LikeLike
i was trying to think of was apparently called ‘Atlantis’, sadly the place did not live up to the name, but really how could it ?…
I don’t know – it did a good impression of sinking, and leaving little other than a few myths behind.
LikeLike
I heard that Atlantis was bought by Japanese businessmen to build aged care homes for geriatric Japanese folk but the Australian govt wouldnt allow it to go ahead.
LikeLike
Do the Japanese bite?
LikeLike
Too true (and hilarious) Grrr, though unlike the ‘real’ Atlantis we’ve stopped hypothesising as to the location of this one – it was just good ol’ Yanchep, can’t miss it!
LikeLike
What about the Mexican restaurant in Subiaco. We all couldn’t believe it when it shut down. Now what was it called. It had operated for all those years when there was hardly a place to eat that wasn’t Italian or Australian or German.
LikeLike
El Gringos!
LikeLike
AKA “The” Gringos
LikeLike
Just returned to this thread by chance and lo and behold – it’s still going after 2 years!
I saw mention of XXX XXXX somewhere up there. I worked at the XXXXXXXXX store while I was at school and still have a lot of erm.. ‘interesting’ memories of that place. Mondo Rock’s ‘Cool World’ was getting a lot of airplay about then which gives one an idea of the time.
Whilst I didn’t witness any gobbing in someone’sXXXX XXXX and chips there were heaps of other fascinating things going on:
Chookball was a good one – where a raw chicken would get kicked around the floor prior to going on the rotisserie spit. Another was fat-flap fights where the fat deposits inside the chicken cavity had to be removed prior to cooking – those babies used to fly all over the place, often ending up stuck on windows or wedged in inaccessible places.
One character (no names to protect the guilty) decided that ‘chicken slippers’ would look cool and donned a pair of raw chooks for a stroll around the establishment – those of course, ended up on the spit.
Finally – for those who hanker for the good old banana fritter – one newly terminated employee sought revenge by laying a Stanley Steamer directly into the deep fryer. Where the toasted turd eventually ended-up is anyone’s guess, but believe me I’ve not had a XXX since.
I thought it best to XX a few of those so the guilty and myself are free from legal action.
LikeLike
Just a few XX’s required there.
I always like to sing “Cane World” instead of “cool world.” “Break into your, Cane, cane, cane, World…” Mondo Rock must be contenders for worst band ever surely?
LikeLike
What, you sing Mondo Rock songs? Urggh.
On the other hand, if you cook up a version of “Come Said The Boy” for the next WOP show, I’d pay money to see it.
LikeLike
I think Cane World gives it a gravitas it previously lacked. Come said the boy? That may even be worse than Hey true Blue.
LikeLike
Now those are three songs we never played on Late Nite 6NR.
Mind you I did once play I Hate The Music to see if anyone was listening.
LikeLike
And you do realise there’s been a massive Pizza Showtime thread Shaun?
LikeLike
I do indeed LA, and a most enjoyable read it’s been too!
Perhaps my recollections of the jolly japes had at XXXXXXX XXXX will spur WOP-ers to submit their own tales of the lewd, crude and disgusting found in Perth’s not-quite-so haute cuisine eating establishments.
Methinks you’ll be wearing the paint off that ‘x’ key in light of some of the fast food felonies perpetrated in the pursuit of workplace jollies…
LikeLike
Actually, come to think of it, Mondo Rock were pretty bad – more like Mundane Rock. Although ‘State of the Heart’ had a certain commercial resonance to it.
However nothing, but nothing, could ever come close to Dead or Alive for putrid pop. I had the misfortune of hearing that awful ‘You Spin Me Right Round’ blasting out of Vultures in Northbridge the other day, only to be immediately assailed with it again on my car radio and then AGAIN on the box as soon as I got home. Front’man’ Pete Burns should have been executed for creating that monstrosity – as well as appearing in make-up and a cravat to sing it.
LikeLike
My Memories of Pizza showtime.
A Kangaroo that had a joey that played the piano. Three koala sisters and Bert Newt hound.
I actually worked for LAI when Pizza showtime was built and had its short lived run which ended when the damn Tax dept, driven by the Premier of the time put a 31 million $$ writ on the company and forced it to abandon its investment in projects like that and calve up the LAI group of companies including dropping many of the Timezones.
I’ve got some magazine pictures of it buried in a box in the shed. LAI used to produce a Vending machine magazine and Pizza Showtime had a small feature in it.
One of my jobs that I was handed was to get inside the Showtime design and look at ways of improving the automation and to make new shows faster, as much of the show was a hardwired sequencer driving the pnematics.
I can only remember one guy named Dan that was working on them as well.
LikeLike
I wrote an article for the lai mag
LikeLike
I am hoping to get a website just like this one.
LikeLike
I remember going to Red Bull Warwick in the 70’s. I think McDonalds moved in. I remember them as the best burgers ever.
LikeLike
there was a Red Bull burgers out in Bentley too, in fact, they were a chain. I remember there bring quite a lot of them.
LikeLike
One in Kelmscott.
LikeLike
I think there was one in Gosnells, which then changed to a Red Rooster. I don’t think it was around for more than a year or 2.
LikeLike
What, no mention of Coles? Coles cafeteria and those suspended fruit jelly things were a staple in the 70s and 80s.
So much has changed in Perth. I used to love the old days when Boans still existed. When Forrest Chase was Forrest Place. When Angus and Robertsons was near the old Myer building. Perth in the 70s and early 80s was awesome!
LikeLike
I mean Angus and Robertsons was near the old Boans.
LikeLike
When they all had billycart races down Murray St, and Aborigines were barred from voting? Hehe, just kidding.
LikeLike
And camels cried “Oooshta” as they were mounted by Afghans?
LikeLike
Exactly. I’m always amused by the grey-area between satire and nostalgia on offer here.
LikeLike
satire used to be funny…
LikeLike
do-gooders put a stop to it
LikeLike
Yeah, those hand-wringing lefties who sold our country to the Japanese.
LikeLike
We are in fact all speaking Japanese right now.
LikeLike
Wo bu zhi dao.
LikeLike
leftanoid commtards I calls em.
LikeLike
And you could catch polio at the Crawley baths.
LikeLike
I haven’t found any photos of the cafeteria (yet), David, but courtesy of the State Library of WA, here and here are a couple of shots from a fashion parade inside Coles, circa 1971, and here’s a shot of Murray Street taken from Forrest Place in 1972, (by Richard Woldendorp, himself).
p.s. I’ve also just found this doozy of the Beaufort Hotel, circa 1969, TLA, which was later to become the much discussed, and now vanished, Lone Star Saloon.
LikeLike
and now a coles store.
LikeLike
Really ? 円相 !
LikeLike
p.s. How about those socks, ladies ?
LikeLike
plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
LikeLike
That Woldendorp picture is probably more like early 80s, for XD Falcons (a pair as taxis) did not exist until 1979.
LikeLike
My apologies, BO’T. Actually, I was wondering about exactly that myself, but I’ve just doublechecked and it’s listed as 1976. Still seems a bit early for those Falcons, doesn’t it ?
LikeLike
It is mislabeled. If you look at the catalog no. you will see the real year – 1982.
LikeLike
What about this one. Oh the memories
LikeLike
P P P P Pizza Showtime. Its here on TWOP, I just cant be bothered
LikeLike
Allow me. A great thread.
LikeLike
I had my first underage drink in the Lone Star Saloon. Oh, the memories.
LikeLike
Yeah, Bag O’Turnips is right. That is the 80s.
LikeLike
I do remember that the Coles cafeteria did have the same old floor-to-ceiling monochrome mural of St George’s Terrace, with the then-newish Council House featured prominently, of which I would reckon it to have been from around 1965, going by the cars on the road (I have been a carspotter since an early age, which would be of no surprise to some of you here!).
The said mural remained in place right until they closed Coles there in 1996, along with the other 1960s vintage decor on that level. It was pretty much the last bastion of crap food high in trans fat and gelatine, but still a source of many childhood memories of taking the 365 into town with Mum and eating jelly custard and crinkle cut chips there or at Boans. Simpler times, but glad they’ve been banished to history.
Still, if you want a similarly underwhelming dining experience hankering for those times, try the IKEA café. OK, the fare’s marginally more modern, but just as unrelentingly bland, both in taste and atmosphere.
LikeLike
IKEA food has been mentioned in March 2008.
LikeLike
Its often debatable as which product has more melamine, the genuine swedish meatballs from Guongzhou, or the flat pack kitchens
LikeLike
I was more a 104 and DJ’s cafeteria, (although the crockery was still enigmatically marked Foy and Gibson), child with mum myself, BO’T, but we’d always hit the one upstairs at Coles Freo if we didn’t have time for Cicerello’s. A cursory search didn’t turn up much, but I did find this funky Bairds Freo cafeteria shot from ’65, and this classic, just for you, TLA.
p.s. Dear Ferralls, (whoever you are), this is how it’s done.
LikeLike
Does anyone remember that dude that used to where a nappy and walk up and down the Murray St Arcade playing ‘Care for Kids’ on his stereo?
LikeLike
…. I mean ‘wear’, dammit!
LikeLike
LikeLike
They should indeed be well nursed until a year old, orbea.
LikeLike
Anyone remember the Dungeon markets under the Cnr of Hay and William. Full of 70’s stuff like bean chairs, lime green and bright orange and black chairs, stools, tables and things, incense, black light posters a music shop – Sound One (6KY). It was underneigth a clothing shop – Walshes or some such spelling.
LikeLike
No, but I do remember Walshs. I went to some cricket promo there, where Rod Marsh and current & future Perth Worst Dennis Lillee had some bogus learn how to play clinic.
LikeLike
I remember them, Mark, and I bought some black light tubes, a few posters, and a bunch of 7″ singles there, although the only photos I could find were this one from the Modesty Blaze store there, and this interesting one from an ad shoot for Aywon flares.
As is often the case with iconic Perth businesses, the State Library has some great photos of Walsh’s in the city from 1935 on, including this one with TLA’s gravatar snuck in on the right, and photos of their stores in Freo, Melville, and at Carousel and Dianella Plaza, amongst others.
LikeLike
I remember it well, I worked there after doing my Matriculation in 1972/73 for a few months. I was in a shop/stage setting that did indian and indian inspired clothes, next to a branch of Together Leather. Then, there was a big jeans shop, a cafe, maybe a poster shop (they were ubiquitous then). It was very very trendy. I don’t live in Perth any more, I don’t live in Australia. I come back now and then and am startled at what the once peaceful quiet place has become.
LikeLike
Joint’s full if bogans and Eurotrash, especially Fremantle.
LikeLike
I think it was Walsh’s Jean Dungeon. Circa ’73. Used to go there when I was about 13/14. It was near the first Jeans West store, where the shop assistants would stick their heads in the change room while you had your pants around your ankles and ask ‘how do they fit?’
LikeLike
Im OVER! P.A.H on ebay it just makes everything cost more and take longer to get delivered. I rarther buy what i want in a shop but with G.S.T laws now that makes ebay seem cheap. Suppose its not what a wired system.
LikeLike
was any one a regular to pinnoccios night club on murry st .this venue was the longest est night club at one time .it was a working person,s club. i worked at this venue as a glassy for 3 year,s the manager was a man called mark manning i remember. i had many good times and still have fond memoires of this place / remember thursday and the any thing goes show.the backstage bar. the corfu cafe next door ,as a teenager i loved this place
LikeLike
Shift key disabled?
Punctuation’s not your forte either, it seems.
Or are you one of those bone idle cunts who has no respect for the intended readers.
Welcome.
LikeLike
Must you always welcome new readers? Maybe flowers would be better?
LikeLike
Rolly’s just sore that he missed out on the Anything Goes shows at Pinnochio’s.
LikeLike
Who sez?
LikeLike
there’s a problem with a disabled shift key?
LikeLike
your a right rude prick you are ..big tough man on a key board… wanker
LikeLike
Oh I thought you meant me. Rolly? Oh yes. He is.
LikeLike
Quite handy with a “shiv”, too.
Not to mention an old fashioned 12 gauge sawn-off and a 44 Magnum.
Come visit me on the farm some day.
LikeLike
When you have a Baravan, the world’s your farm.
LikeLike
yep ,i was a regular at pinnocchio’s,great place ,people,was the best
LikeLike
Rolly’s just pissed off he didn’t win on “Who do you do?” on 96FM – with Marty Gittens I think it was… scored a ‘Hondo’ fucken cheap knock-off bass guitar on one occasion in ’81 and a Toshiba boombox with ‘fuzzy logic’ on another, in I think… ’82.
We used to do Monkey impersonations and Kenny Everett stuff… wierd but good times…
LikeLike
Come to think of it… might have been 6PM back then…
LikeLike
Srsly – lol wut?
LikeLike
You actually listened to that kind of shit?
LikeLike
Tenagers aren’t exactly renowned for good taste in their choice of radio entertainment Rolly. You were one once remember? Then again, perhaps it was the ‘wireless’ back when you were coming of age…
LikeLike
6pm was much better than 6pr for the kids. You have to forgive Rolly, he was born 60.
LikeLike
Shall we just say that the BBC’s ‘Home Service’ and ‘Light Programme’ were the only two stations that were on the air in my early youth.
Which marks me as a Brit immigrant as well as somewhat ancient.
It amuses me to see so many comments by posters making total arseholes of themselves in their naïve ignorance of the recent past.
One of the few advantages of increasing age.
Mind you, I have a l-o-o-n-ng way to go to catch up with this 92 year old – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGfeeF6FIyg
Be patient; it gets really interesting about half way through.
LikeLike
I’ll give you that one Rolly… that’s classic aged salsa.. makes me wish Boko’s ‘grab a granny’ bar were still in operation at Subiaco of a Saturday night…
LikeLike
Rolly – please explain your obvious relationship with this person/a…
LikeLike
Nowt, mate.
I just envy her robust health and enthusiasm for life.
LikeLike
Oh holy crap. Why did I read this blog?
Memories – not all good- come flooding back from my youth.
Boans actually had an elevator – I think from the Arc…
I remember the “Red Bull” burger joint on Hay & Jersey St in Jolimont…
And who remembers the pimply kid outside the ANZ on Barrack & Hay Saturday mornings yelling out “Wester Mail” at the top of his voice between ducking into Cinema City Macca’s to recite “Two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun” in exchange for the free cheeseburger… and watching all the NEW Brock Commodores and XD’s doing bog laps around the block…
– My voice has broken since then, and the Western Mail vanished a couple of years later. Never got to see the Pizza Showtime – We ate pizza sit down at the local Pizza Hut off plastic red-checkered tablecloths. Dining excellence!!! Had some good, some bad dining experiences at ‘Pancakes at Carillion’, was solicited for sex by an old pervert in the Alambra Bars Tavern (while selling papers), and regularly drove the slot cars at Strombeckers. Thanks for the ride.
LikeLike
Make yourself comfy, Sir. There is no turning back.
LikeLike
I know this post is almost 4 years old, but they just completed a refurbishment and I am now going there weekly!!! honestly such good food and the line outside in testament to its great business! warning its a tad over priced, though- but well worth it..
lol, stumbled over this article searching for a menu! hopefully you guys have a better experience than ur last! -Arlando
LikeLike
Should have read the article first! Just realised ur talking about the website and not the food itself! sorry!
LikeLike
I remember the Coles Fossey’s cafeteria in Hay St with it’s best crinkle chips and gravy, I even remember the monochrome circles in the ladies department.
There use to be a similar cafeteria next to the Lay-By department in Woolworths in Bentley if you remember it.
How about the two storey King Kong store in the 90’s next to the Commonwealth Bank in Hay St… what store did that use to be?
LikeLike
King Kong was in the old Myers building on the corner of William Street and the Murray Street Mall. Oh and the wonderful memories of a pie chips and gravy at Coles Cafeteria.
LikeLike
I remember the potato salad and the refillable cokes.
LikeLike
OK, as Arlando said Pancakes has just completed a substantial and complete refurb in March of this year. Yes I am the owner (declared) and I welcome everyone to visit. This site is reviewing the website – NOT THE FOOD OR SERVICE. Yes the old website (previous owner) was wanting and we have just built a new exciting, vibrant and informative website online mid to late October 2011. We still have the old staff and a brand new menu incorporating the old favourites. In fact we dropped one dish from the menu in total and added 15 new items for the diner. We have been a city dining icon since 1983 and welcome all for a memorable sweet or savoury endulgence.
LikeLike
Well that’s more of a response than the usual “Get a life loosers. All praise to this establishment for staying alive when others like Red Bull burgers have long since gone.
Well I might just bring the boy in for his first pancaking experience sometime.
LikeLike
Yay for the pancake parlour and youth with a mission for responding graciously to worsting. I too will endulge my children one of these days.
LikeLike
Bravo! Looking forward to crap-free short stacks!
LikeLike
Isnt Pancakes an offshot of that Hale Bopp cult, or Branch Davidian or some other Flying Spaghetti Monster worshipping mob of flat earthers?
LikeLike
Maybe TL101, or someone from his old band, can tell us.
LikeLike
the missing 12 inch – pancake clamping by moonlight
still searching for that one
LikeLike
That is good news and if I had kids I would endulge them.
However, Greg, can the menu be brand new if all but one dishes from the old menu are on it?
Just wondering! No offence!
LikeLike
Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Quince paste on a pancake? Yeah right?
LikeLike
Yes – or fruits de la mer a la pancake with some formic couli. Yum!
LikeLike
No offence taken RB. No we just retained all but 2 or 3 (i think) from the old menu and added about another 15. The recipe was right as it had been trading for 28 yrs and had obviously struck a chord with diners. I think there would be less than 2 or 3 dedicated pancake houses in Perth so we decided to retain most of the old theme. We now serve a variety of fresh fruit crush drinks and MSA fillet steak and grilled fish etc. We will be adding new and seasonal fresh dishes in the restaurant and on the new website for a bit of variety. Hope to see you in there one day ! Cheers
Greg
LikeLike
I remember a banana, bacon and maple syrup concoction from the 80s. I hope that’s still extant.
LikeLike
Took you up on your invitation, Greg. Lovely (as they say). Food good, service good, menu spelling satisfactory. Bravo.
I gave the secret TWOP signal (letting one go at the counter), but didn’t get my discount. Perhaps you could remind the staff for next time?
LikeLike
OK guys launched the new wbsite last month and more in keeping with our restaurant theme. Doing heaps of radio, corporate and on the ground promotions and hope to see you all soon :-)
LikeLike
pancakesatcarrillon.com.au
LikeLike
Bro Bento has already been and givin his hoofprint of approval.
LikeLike
correction……………..pancakesatcarillon.com.au
LikeLike
Pingback: Beneath the Valley of the Dolls | The Worst of Perth
Does anyone remember the Greek restaurant in Terrace Arcade in 1964 or 1965? Named after some famous ruins in Greece. The guy there then had something to do with a lunchbar at the top of Wellington Street, East Perth. I would like to meet his descendants as he would probably be dead by now. I was also working at the opening ceremony of City Arcade.
LikeLike