Scooby Doo's Pipe Organ Pizza

[dpmccann]

Does anyone at all remember Scooby Doo's Pipe Organ Pizza? It was located in the Greenspoint area of town from the late 1970's through the early 80's. The shut it down and a Biraperetti's occupied the space for a few years. Every time I go by there now the space is empty.

Pipe Organ Pizza was a wonderland when I was a child. The pipe organ was centered in the front of the building but a string of mechanical things winded around the walls and you could see them operate through a glass window. Drum sets, trumpets etc could be controlled via the pipe organ as well. Unfortunately, it got to the point where the costumed characters would only appear on the weekends. During the week a screen would come down and run cartoons and 3-stooges films during the organists break.

They did have a great video arcade for the time. This was the first place I ever say a Pac-Man game machine...probably around 1981 or so.

The one thing I really remember is a giant, purple "Dino" (front the Flintstones) head and neck the was attached to the wall. It was mechanical and moved back and forth.

I've searched Google, yahoo, eBay for years looking for any memorabilia or information on this place and have come up empty. Most people I talk to don't even thing it ever existed. I'm not sure if this was a chain or a single place...but I would guess a chain due to the licensing and everything.

Anyways, any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[Original Timmy Chan's]

There was also a Pipe Organ Pizza on the Gulf Freeway (at Monroe?) around the same time. I had a birthday party there one year, and it is still one of my best memories as a child. I don't remember a Scooby Doo theme, though.

The old Pipe Organ Pizza is now a pool hall, I believe. There used to be a Handy Dan hardware store in the same shopping center that I think is now a kidney dialysis place.

[KimberlySayWhat]

I had a birthday party there as well as attended some.

[dpmccann]

Thanks for the replies.

[angeleye]

Does anyone at all remember Scooby Doo's Pipe Organ Pizza? It was located in the Greenspoint area of town from the late 1970's through the early 80's. The shut it down and a Biraperetti's occupied the space for a few years. Every time I go by there now the space is empty.

Pipe Organ Pizza was a wonderland when I was a child. The pipe organ was centered in the front of the building but a string of mechanical things winded around the walls and you could see them operate through a glass window. Drum sets, trumpets etc could be controlled via the pipe organ as well. Unfortunately, it got to the point where the costumed characters would only appear on the weekends. During the week a screen would come down and run cartoons and 3-stooges films during the organists break.

They did have a great video arcade for the time. This was the first place I ever say a Pac-Man game machine...probably around 1981 or so.

The one thing I really remember is a giant, purple "Dino" (front the Flintstones) head and neck the was attached to the wall. It was mechanical and moved back and forth.

I've searched Google, yahoo, eBay for years looking for any memorabilia or information on this place and have come up empty. Most people I talk to don't even thing it ever existed. I'm not sure if this was a chain or a single place...but I would guess a chain due to the licensing and everything.

Anyways, any help is appreciated. Thanks!

I grew up in Dallas and remember this place as I frequented it often and have so many fond memories of it. There were so many rooms. Do you remember the old library room, the video arcade/ games room and the fab salad bar? The mini pizzas were the best. I loved the cinema room with the 3 stooges films when the organists took a break. Loved the Pac-Man games. Nobody seems to remember this place. I have mentioned it to people and they act like I am in the Twilight Zone with blank stares when I mention it. This place was definitely a chain. I am surprised that we can't find any info on it. Thanks for reminding me of the fond memories!

[texasdago]

I had a birthday party at the Memorial City location (near where the Foley's is now located)

[N8TIV]

How about JoJo's near Memorial City Mall?

[dpmccann]

I grew up in Dallas and remember this place as I frequented it often and have so many fond memories of it. There were so many rooms. Do you remember the old library room, the video arcade/ games room and the fab salad bar? The mini pizzas were the best. I loved the cinema room with the 3 stooges films when the organists took a break. Loved the Pac-Man games. Nobody seems to remember this place. I have mentioned it to people and they act like I am in the Twilight Zone with blank stares when I mention it. This place was definitely a chain. I am surprised that we can't find any info on it. Thanks for reminding me of the fond memories!

Thanks for the reply. I had no idea this was a chain. I'm amazed that I can't find any information at all on it, google, ebay or anywhere. And I agree, I get the same blank stares from people who think i'm making it up. If anyone finds out any information or has a contact please let us know.

[Parrothead]

I remember the Scooby Doo one! I also miss Panjo's Pizza...

[matt24]

Does anyone at all remember Scooby Doo's Pipe Organ Pizza? It was located in the Greenspoint area of town from the late 1970's through the early 80's. The shut it down and a Biraperetti's occupied the space for a few years. Every time I go by there now the space is empty.

Pipe Organ Pizza was a wonderland when I was a child. The pipe organ was centered in the front of the building but a string of mechanical things winded around the walls and you could see them operate through a glass window. Drum sets, trumpets etc could be controlled via the pipe organ as well. Unfortunately, it got to the point where the costumed characters would only appear on the weekends. During the week a screen would come down and run cartoons and 3-stooges films during the organists break.

They did have a great video arcade for the time. This was the first place I ever say a Pac-Man game machine...probably around 1981 or so.

The one thing I really remember is a giant, purple "Dino" (front the Flintstones) head and neck the was attached to the wall. It was mechanical and moved back and forth.

I've searched Google, yahoo, eBay for years looking for any memorabilia or information on this place and have come up empty. Most people I talk to don't even thing it ever existed. I'm not sure if this was a chain or a single place...but I would guess a chain due to the licensing and everything.

Anyways, any help is appreciated. Thanks!

I think there was one off of 1960 sometime between 1978-1983. I used to love to play the "Excite Bike" arcade game there. I think it lost alot of business when a Showbiz opened a block or two over.

Edited December 5, 2005 by matt24

[marmer]

I remember them both; not completely sure that they were both extant at the same time. I'm thinking maybe they moved from the 1960 area to the Gulf Freeway location. Seems like those theatre organs would be hard to come by in quantity.

There's a theatre organ society that keeps up with the provenance and disposition of those instruments; most functional ones are highly prized. The one from Pipe Organ Pizza is almost certainly in use somewhere...

Marty

[ToolMan]

I beleive Scooby Doo's was right around the Greenspont area.

[adamj]

I grew up in Dallas and remember this place as I frequented it often and have so many fond memories of it. There were so many rooms. Do you remember the old library room, the video arcade/ games room and the fab salad bar? The mini pizzas were the best. I loved the cinema room with the 3 stooges films when the organists took a break. Loved the Pac-Man games. Nobody seems to remember this place. I have mentioned it to people and they act like I am in the Twilight Zone with blank stares when I mention it. This place was definitely a chain. I am surprised that we can't find any info on it. Thanks for reminding me of the fond memories!

I grew up in Dallas as well and I too have fond memories of this place when it was located off of Coit Rd. on the Richardson-Dallas border. It along with the ORIGINAL Chuck E. Cheese were the best!

[KimberlySayWhat]

I understand Chuck E. Cheese no longer has robots (or as Rod Serling called them and as I sometimes also like to refer to them: robits) Remember Showbiz Pizza? I think all those have gone kaput.

The good old days of pizza and singing animatronics. Ah, good times. Good times.

[Subdude]

Chuck E Cheese always kind of freaked me out.

[RedScare]

Back in 1984, a restaurant called "Gadgets" opened up on FM 1960, near Walters Road. It was a Warner Brothers venture that had a stage in the dining room with robotic Looney Tunes figures that put on a show. It had a pretty big video game area and a HUGE bar, separate from the "family" restaurant area. In the bar, there was a robotic lounge piano player. Every hour or so, this robot would crank up songs like "New York, New York", and other lounge staples.

It was pretty hilarious. The problem was, bar patrons thought it was a family restaurant, and families thought it was a singles bar. The confusion, as well as the $2 million price tag to build it, eventually doomed it.

Amazingly, I found a 1984 article about the restaurant.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._v18/ai_3352548

[KimberlySayWhat]

Wow, Gadgets sounds crazy. I had never heard of that.

Chuck E Cheese always kind of freaked me out.

As a child, I always wondered what it would be like if those robits went wild and started hurting the diners. I thought they were kind of creepy as well. Animatronics along with puppets, ventriloquist dolls and such. Maybe that's why I was amused by them. My male cousins all had ventriloquist dolls when we were little. They'd leave them at my grandma's house and I loved to play with them, but I didn't dare want to own one for myself.

[TexasHome]

The pipe organ from the one at Monroe was originally built and used in a theater in Chicago. After that it came to Houston for the pizza thing.

When the pizza place folded it was taken to Brook Mays and refurbished, crated and sold to someone that put it in their home somewhere in the NE.

[dpmccann]

The pipe organ from the one at Monroe was originally built and used in a theater in Chicago. After that it came to Houston for the pizza thing.

When the pizza place folded it was taken to Brook Mays and refurbished, crated and sold to someone that put it in their home somewhere in the NE.

Thanks for the info. But How they fit *all* of that into one home would be beyond me!

[technoevil]

Does anyone remeber a place called Jungle Jims? I went there in the early 90's when I was little. If I remember correctly it was very close to Sharpstown Mall. Another place I remember going to is Discovery Zone in the mid 90's on Bellaire and Stella Link.

[Reefmonkey]

I loved the Greenspoint Scooby Doo's

[gonzo1976]

Wait. I thought Brown Sugar's BBQ is where Scooby Doo's used to be? I know Sound Warehouse used to be in the same shopping center nearby.

[TJones]

Thanks for the info. But How they fit *all* of that into one home would be beyond me!

Think about that statement for a second. The type of person that could afford to purchase the organ and have the organ refurbished and then pay for the cost of freight on the organ, and have the organ reassembled in their house, isn't living in a 1800sqft. Ranch style in the 'burbs. This is the type of person that owns a few developments in the 'burbs, and his or her house has an 1800 sq.ft. room in their house just for the organ to be placed in.

I love HAIF, always find some funny stuff on here.

Edited August 14, 2006 by TJones

[dpmccann]

Wait. I thought Brown Sugar's BBQ is where Scooby Doo's used to be? I know Sound Warehouse used to be in the same shopping center nearby.

When Scooby Doo's closed it became a Biraporetti's Italian restaurant soon afterwards. I believe it was open until the early 1990's. I believe Brown Sugar's BBQ was in the location directly to the left of the old Scooby Doo location in the same shopping strip.

I don't know what is located there now as I haven't visited that shopping area in years.

Does anyone know if any Scooby Doo Pizza locations survived in to the 1990's? Except for a couple of blurry Polaroids that I have in my personal collection from the late 70's it's like the chain never existed.

[Alpha]

Thanks for the info. But How they fit *all* of that into one home would be beyond me!

Back in the 60s, my dad had a friend who had a pipe organ in his garage. I think it had two or three ranks of pipes and it had traps (the drums, bells, and other percussion instruments that you could play from the organ.) We used to go there all the time and play it. I think his neighbors might have complained occasionally, because there was no way to control the volume.

[mkultra25]

Think about that statement for a second. The type of person that could afford to purchase the organ and have the organ refurbished and then pay for the cost of freight on the organ, and have the organ reassembled in their house, isn't living in a 1800sqft. Ranch style in the 'burbs. This is the type of person that owns a few developments in the 'burbs, and his or her house has an 1800 sq.ft. room in their house just for the organ to be placed in.

I love HAIF, always find some funny stuff on here.

1800 sq ft is a tad on the small side, if you're talking about the really big theater organs. The best example is probably Jasper Sanfilippo's 5/80 WurliTzer: 8000 pipes in five rooms behind a four-story-high curtain. In his house, or, more appropriately, mansion. What's even more staggering is that it's only one of several organs in the house!

You can see pics and read more about of the Sanfilippo "Victorian Palace" and the 5/80 WurliTzer here and here.

[KimberlySayWhat]

Brown Sugar's is still there and has been for a long time. I was in that area two weeks ago.

Scooby Doo's was at the opposite end of that strip center.

[Zippy]

From what I remember the "Scooby Doo" was added to "Pipe Organ Pizza" (At least the one at Memorial City mall). It wasn't always Scooby Doo. Perhaps they added it for corporate sponsorship or to appeal to the kiddies.

I loved that place. As a kid there was always so much to watch and the video games were JUST a quarter!

[Drewdog]

Holy crap!

I had a birthday (I think my 2nd or 3rd) at Scooby Doo Pizza (dont remember the Pipe Organ part). It was def. the Greenspoint location, and from what I remember (or at least from pictures) it was huge and there were alot of things to do.

[TJones]

Holy crap!

I had a birthday (I think my 2nd or 3rd) at Scooby Doo Pizza (dont remember the Pipe Organ part). It was def. the Greenspoint location, and from what I remember (or at least from pictures) it was huge and there were alot of things to do.

Please post the pics, if they have background in them of Scooby's.