ISSUE #19 - December, 2001
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Hello fans! I hope that everyone's been well lately. My plans were to do some major updating over Thanksgiving break, but somehow things got changed around. My friend was wanting me to go with him out to Tennesse to spend Thanksgiving with another one of our friends who recently moved out there. And just has luck would have it, that was the same week that Looney Bird's was opening up in Jackson. Serendipity or dumb luck? Who knows, all that mattered was Looney's was opening and I was going. Besides, I have some more time off soon for updating.

November 23, 2001. The day before the big grand opening, and the 5th day the store had been open. We came upon a Coca-cola banner flapping in the wind outside the shopping center where Looney's is located that was announcing the grand opening. Then my eyes landed on the Looney's sign - which was really cool, the Looney Bird head is like a relief and it sticks out of the sign. The neon lights could be seen through the windows. Inside the setup looked similar to Chuck E. Cheeses, with a few exceptions. There was a walkway leading from the front doors to the ordering counter, and it divided the arcade section from the kiddie section which had the ball crawl and sky tubes. The inside deco was really neat, everything had deep purple trimming, and the neon lights were purple too. The celing was painted blue with white clouds, and the company's website address was actually painted on the walls. There was also paintings on the walls of a train with the letters "LB" printed on it, and an airplane with the familiar Looney Logo.

When friend and I ordered and saw that the menu had titles such as "Mitzi's Appetizer", "Looney Bird's Pizzas" and "Choo-choo's Salads" - VERY cool. From there we ventured to the show room, where the show was playing and things were busy.

Collectable Of The Month

Looney Bird's Child's T-shirt

Looney T-shirt
  • This cool little shirt is one of the 1st Looney's collectables available from the Jackson store - these were given away during the grand opening celebration.

This was one of the coolest parts of the visit - actually getting to see the Rock-afire entertaining families. It was similar to what I saw when visiting Billy Bob's Wonderland, but much different too. Sorta like if Billy Bob's had been given a shot of adrenaline - that was the scene at Looney Bird's. Picture a brand new classic Rock-afire show playing loud and in full motion, a Looney Bird and Billy Bob walkaround plus a troop of employees leading a dance in front of center stage, kids and adults both dancing with them, and after the performance was over the audience actually applauded. I kid you not. It was just like in those campy promotional videos that are really cheesy and you can tell everyone it them was paid to act happy. Only this wasn't acting, and the people and excitement was real. I have home video to prove this if there's anyone out there who doubts me. And to make things all the more impressive, just know that this wasn't done for a birthday party or anything special - this was just a regular show.

The walkarounds and employees were out on the floor for nearly the entire time I was there. And it worked out great too. The stage was raised up about 3 feet or more allowing everything to still be seen while everyone was dancing below. The showroom was open to the rest of the store, but since the volume was up it drained out the noise of the rest of the store. There was a big screen right beside Rolfe's stage that was playing Cartoon Network. One of the cool things about the stage, was the valance banner - they had it custom made in a dark purple material that matched with the rest of the store (while keeping the original frill and labels). In my oppinion it actually looked better than the traditional maroon color.

The shows were playing consistantly, with short intermissions. They were the newer compiled tapes, but most of the songs had the original voices and there was only a few of the horrid ones that used recordings by the original artists. And the only major technical problem was that the curtains weren't working yet, but that's about it.

Cool Picture
of the Month

Looney Bird's Showroom
Jackson, Tennesse

Looney's
  • This picture shows what the new Looney's showroom looks like with the classic RAE show.

I was also able to meet Jeff Wall, the owner and mastermind behind the concept. Although the franchise and Looney Bird idea was invented and test marketed by Creative Engineering, much of the concept for the Tennesse store was all Jeff's. He and his wife Amy were the owners of a daycare center and children had been there business and they had come to understand their likes and dislikes. Much of this research was what went into Looney Bird's - which was the reason for the purple color scheme. Also trains and planes were voted the most popular vehicles which is why they were painted on the walls. Jeff and Amy were also the ones who did the artwork for the wall decorations. One interesting note is that the train on the wall of the showroom was finished right before the Sept. 11th attacks. So the next day they added an American flag on the end of the train.

Jeff was really nice, wait change that... INCREDIBLY nice to my friend and I. We sat and talked awhile about how everything was going and how exciting it all was. He filled me in on some of the behind scenes information about franshise options and stuff like that. Apparently interested investors had already flown in to see Looney's and were interested in getting stores of their own!

Yet another bonus was that Jeff saw the entertainment value in using the classic show. Yes, using the old show doesn't fit in with the "Looney Bird's" theme as well as the new show would, but it's worth it to have the better and more active entertainment that only the classic show can provide. Surprisingly enough there's still enough classic shows around for a limited number of stores, but if the Looney Bird concept really takes off, an option of putting the show back into production is being kicked around. Who knows, I mean this seems like quite a stretch, but how many of you ever thought of a store opening with the classic show in 2001?

So there's no telling what could happen. If nothing else, Jeff wants to put some of the dolls back into production, along with lots of Looney Bird merchandise. We could even see something like Rock-afire CDs, and stuff like that. Jeff has really invested himself into this and he's serious about what he does. He's even paid close attention to the collectability of what his store produces. He was kind enough to give me some of the items that they were giving away for the grand opening, and most of the items had either the companies website address or store address printed on them. Quite a brilliant move if you ask me.

We also got to try out some new desert pizza that one of the employees had put together that day. It was really cool. My friend was even impressed, which was amazing. The whole week leading up to this he had been hounding me about being overly-obsessed. Yet when he saw Looney's and we got to meet with the owner, I think he finally realized why I put so much of my time and effort into building on this site like I do. It's just nice for me to see that someone out there has the means of making my dreams come true, and I want to do everything that I can to help him along.

You know,anymore it seems that us fans are the only faint reminder that ShowBiz and the Rock-afire Explosion ever existed in the first place - and yet here's this store out in Tennesse that's brand new, and showcasing the Rock-afire in their full glory. Looney's isn't some ancient relic that managed to survive past the 1980's. It's brand new and cutting edge, yet retro at the same time. ShowBiz is gone and will unfortunately never be back. But don't look at Looney Bird's as simply "the next best thing" - it's much better than that. If you live in Tennesse or have any way of getting to visit this store, you should by all means do so. I realize that not everyone can make the trip, but those who do won't be dissapointed. So try to get out and see Looney's. And if it becomes a success there might just be one opening up close to you in the near future. I wish Jeff the best of luck!!

Until Next Month,
- VegaNova


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