The Rock-afire Explosion Documentary

The Rock A Fire Explosion Documentary

Aaron Fechter:

I stopped worrying about what my legacy with the Rock A Fire Explosion would be before I found out there were fans. About the year 2000, I had already stopped worrying about whether or not the Rock A Fire Explosion meant anything to anybody anymore or whether I would be remembered for it. Um- I really did, I felt like I needed to move on anyway, I needed to find more meaningful things that I could do for the world, maybe help solve the energy crisis, maybe invent something else, even do something else that was entertaining. Uh, I really didn’t know that I had a future with the Rock A Fire Explosion in any way whatsoever. Including with the small fan group.

Chris Thrash:

I’ve always been public with my childhood, I believe you should always be a child at heart and don’t be ashamed of it you know? If there’s something you dreamed you wanted to do when you was a kid then do it. You dreamed it for a reason. And I dreamed to have this and I had it, some people like it, some people don’t. I don’t care, it’s mine.

Mike Sherpenburg:

If you didn’t grow up with it then you can’t understand what it meant but it was like meeting a real celebrity. Like the way people might meet, say, The Rolling Stones.

Kerry:

It- it just stuck with me, I like- I just, like I’ve never seen anything like that before.

[“Rainy days” Showbiz ad plays]

Chris Thrash:

Showbiz Pizza Place was a restaurant in the 80’s that was like a miniaturized version of disney world.

Damon Breland:

It had the rides, it had the games, it had pizza, it had beer for your parents! And they had an animatronic show called The Rock A Fire Explosion.

Chris Thrash:

My mom would drop me off at Showbiz and go to the movies. That’s the longest I’ve been there so, 2 hours, 2 and a half hours, by myself. And then sometimes I could talk her into uh- staying a little while longer you know? Maybe she can sit down, eat her something while I watched some more shows.

Mike Sherpenburg:

Going to see these characters was like- it was like the most important thing in my childhood I think, hands down. My mom absolutely hated the place but when I- whenever I had a birthday or a special treat that’s what I wanted to do.

Damon Breland:

When I was young, growing up in elementary school, um- Showbiz would- would run a promotion and um- for the promotion was tokens for A’s. So, it was always uh- my goal to get honor roll or banner roll so that my dad would take me to Showbiz and I could go in with my report card, show them my report card and uh- get free tokens.

Travis Schafer:

I was probably only there maybe 10 times my entire youth but the weeks leading up to it, the days leading up to it, I can remember the day of, just seemed like it would never come and then, you know, we’d go and it’d be great to see The Rock A Fire Explosion, ride some of the rides, maybe take home some collectables and that that were on the cheap side.

Chris Thrash:

I- I guess I was curious as to just what do they do when the curtains close? Do they look around at each other? I mean, what do they do, you know? And then when I walked up they was just staring, and to me that was really like they was more alive then than they were when a show was playing cause they’re just staring down at you like, “What are you doing back here?” you know? So I very quickly got back off the stage heheheh. But I would get up on the stage, I remember the first time I went behind the curtain, looked around, there wasn’t nobody, wasn’t nobody there. And I walked right up in front of Beach Bear and it was just like, it took my breath almost because I was never that close to them. And they would just sit there staring at me. You know, that was kinda scary, I never saw them in the prose position like that, so that weirded me out a little bit.

[Scene shows Chris walking up to a shed and opening the door]

Chris Thrash:

Ladies and gentlemen, The Rock A Fire Explosion.

[Rock A Fire news segment plays]

News caster:

It’s just an ordinary band, right? Wrong. It’s called The Rock A Fire Explosion and as you can see it’s far from ordinary. I guess you call it a mechanical music group. Or maybe you call it a musical group that just happens to be mechanical. At any rate it’s a different concept in entertainment that starts at this rather unsuspecting building in downtown Orlando. Inside Creative Engineering, an arm here, a leg there, an eye, a hand, and whatever this fuzzy thing is, are welded and bolted and all put together to make a skeleton of sorts. While at the same time the bodies of the characters are being born. Latex molds are made of their bodies, add stuffing and a fuzzy little covering and you have one member of The Rock A Fire Explosion.

Mike Sherpenburg:

My favorite Rock A Fire character hands down has to be Fatz Geronimo for a lot of reasons. First of all Fatz has just so much personality, he’s kinda a big scary guy when you first look at him but he’s got so much facial expression and he can actually bob his head side to side like this and uh- some of the characters can make their eyes go wide but Fatz can actually blink and it’s just so cool to watch him close his eyes and he sits there and he’s playing his organ and bobbing his head like Stevie Wonder and he just gets so into it. You just gotta love the guy, he’s the centerpiece of the show, he’s right dead center, he’s got this really cool flashing organ-

Fatz Geronimo:

Yeah folks, you’re looking at the most sophisticated keyboard in the whole world cause this baby can make the sound of anything! From a cats meow-

[cat meows]

Fatz Geronimo:

To a lions roar-

[Lion roars]

Fatz Geronimo:

To a pistol shot!

[Pistol shot goes off]

Fatz Geronimo:

To a world war!

[Sound of a world blowing up]

Fatz Geronimo:

Haha! Now come on, somebody name something up here, make it hard as you want! Anything!

Beach Bear:

Uh- how about 19 apathetical men with a market for pretensity towards procrastination and sloth?

Chris Thrash:

Beach Bear’s the lead guitarist of the band um, you know he does a lot of guitar solos. He likes- he tends to like rock and roll music and uh- he’s sort of like a- almost an english major, he always talks real appropriate and seems to be really smart.

Damon Breland:

But the coolest thing about Beach Bear was that he had his own spotlight for his guitar so you know, when he’d have his rock solos and he would be rocking out on his guitar you know you can watch that spotlight come and shine on his guitar.

Chris Thrash:

Alright Dook Larue, he’s our drummer and he’s also my favorite character. Uh- he’s- he’s funny in a way, likes to tell jokes, but he’s also kind dim witted which makes him naturally funny. And uh- he can tear some drums up, I really- I’m really intrigued by his drumming and how a robot can play the drums. That’s what makes him my favorite character because I played with the drums also. His outfit is a space suit, and uh- he claims that uh- one day he wants to go into outer space and in the meantime he’s gonna sit here and play drums with the band.

Aaron Fechter: (As Billy Bob)

Well you know Billy Bob uh- is Billy Bob! I have- I um- I have to tell ya I’m a sweet guy, uh- I’m straight but i’m sweet uh- yeah I’m- I’m from the hills of Tennessee.

Chris Thrash:

Well he works at uh- Smitty’s Super Service Station. It’s like a gas station out in the middle of the sticks. And uh- The Looney Bird over here in the barrel he drinks- he drinks the gas-o-hol, it gets him drunk.

Damon Breland:

How many people have a Rock A Fire Explosion tattoo? Now think about this, how many fans have braved six hours under a tattoo gun to get a Billy Bob tattoo?

Kerry:

So one character that really stood out uh- to me um- from all the other characters was Rolfe! Was Rolfe and Earle. I just- I loved Rolfe’s voice um- so that’s where- Rolfe is really what got me interested in The Rock A Fire.

Chris Thrash:

You got Rolfe Dewolfe here, he’s uh- He does little comedy skits uh- from time to time he’ll come interrupt the band, he’s real arrogant like he thinks he’s the leader of it and then he gets made fun of by the band cause he’s really nobody wanting to be somebody.

Rolfe Dewolfe:

Hey get that organ cranked up, we have a contract to perform.

Fatz Geronimo:

Rolfe, if you didn’t notice I said I need to fix this thing right now.

Rolfe Dewolfe:

Our contract says you have to play right now.

Chris Trash:

Earle Schmerle is his hand puppet. Uh- Rolfe claims to be a ventriloquist but it’s really as if Earle has a mind of his own and he’s always cutting down Rolfe and putting him down and uh- calling him a geek.

Damon Breland: This is Mitzi Mozzarella. She was the female vocal lead for The Rock A Fire Explosion. She was voiced by Shalisa Sloan. Shalisa Sloan started singing Mitzi Mozzarella’s voice when she was 11 years old! And she still voices her today. Mitzi is probably my second most favorite character. So much so that she’s going to be my next tattoo.

[Scene shows Damon walking up to a wood building]

Damon Breland:

The Rock A Fire Explosion was big in the 80’s. And to me any time I look around now, it seems that all things 80’s are having a resurgence. But there’s a fan group out there, and their obsession is the Rock A Fire Explosion. We all seem to be about the same age, we’re late 20’s early 30’s, we grew up with them.

Travis Schafer:

Most people in my regular life um-, I call it my regular life, my work life, my family, close friends and that, they don’t always understand the Rock A Fire obsession. Um- to them it strikes them as something odd, they don’t really get it, but it’s pretty much an everyday thing, it’s not something I ever really take a vacation from and um- it’s one of those things that really has infiltrated most every little part of my everyday life.

Mike :

I’m very into the 80’s retro stuff. I collect all the toys I’ve got a huge house full of action figures, Star Wars memorabilia. I basically have never parted with my childhood and um- really the whole pizza and animatronic thing with Showbiz and The Rock A Fire it- it- it was my life long dream to own these guys.

Chris Thrash:

I love 80’s music, I love a lot of things about the 80’s. It was a simpler time for me back then, life wasn’t as complicated. That’s what makes me love the show so much, cause it was just- you can just go back 20 years in time, you don’t have to worry about nothing for a while.

Travis Schefer:

The recent Youtube um- Rock A Fire phenomenon, I guess you could call it, with Chris uploading Ms. Newbooty and Love in this club and programming newer shows. It caught a lot of us by surprise.

Damon Breland:

I don’t see how the guy has the time to do everything he does because of all the programming, just seeing the Youtube videos I mean- uh- he’s got some amazing Youtube videos.

[Chris Thrash’s “Ms. Newbooty” and “Hey there Delilah” videos play]

Chris Thrash:

When I first got the show, the show was really for me. I wanted it where Showbiz Pizza Place could never be taken away from me again cuz it was always gonna be mine. That was all I was really interested in, and uh- when I started making my own shows and putting them on Youtube. It was just something for fun you know, let the other fans uh- that was already a fan of The Rock A Fire, let them see them you know? Get their opinion, next thing you know this is blowing up, everybody’s interested in it. Had no idea.

Billy Bob: (Singing)

Oh, what you do to me

Oh, it’s what you do to me

What you do to me

Chris Thrash:

I was just on the internet one day and bored and I said “You know what? Let me type this Showbiz Pizza in.” and sure enough I come up on uh- this guy named Travis. He uh- he was a fan also and he realized that you know, there was nothing out there and he brought a lot of fans together that I didn’t even know existed, I thought I was just crazy or something. I just couldn’t let go of it and uh- but actually there’s a lot of people just like me, you know? Except I’m lucky enough to have the show, you know? It- it really surprised me, it really did, cause- cause I just had no idea cause so many years had went by and I thought it was just a forgotten subject cause it got to where if I went to Chuck E. Cheese and I asked somebody about it, it was getting where people was like “what is it now?”. You know, it was just like, gosh It’s totally being forgotten, it was so great how can you not know what it is? I don’t know, maybe it’s just me you know, maybe it’s just me, and then I seen, wow there’s a whole fan community of people that feel the same way I do. And uh- that made me feel a lot better and you know I immediately felt like I was home, like I was where I needed to be.

Travis Schefer:

Chris Thrash contacted me probably about 5 years ago uh- 2002, 2003. And he was interested in trying to obtain some of these Rock A Fire robots, he was looking for information, anything you could find. He was um- wondering if I had any for sale, which at the time I didn’t, and I referred him to Aaron Fechter and Creative Engineering.

Aaron Fechter:

Chris Thrash called me one day and he was- he was telling me what a fan he was and how much he loved the music of The Rock A Fire Explosion and he was asking me basically if it was possible for him to get ahold of some of that music. Well Chris was so excited about having found me and The Rock A Fire Explosion, the other fans of The Rock A Fire Explosion, he didn’t want to stop there, he didn’t want to wait.

[Scene changes to a video from Nov. 5, 2006]

Chris Thrash:

First crate: Mitzi.

Aaron Fechter:

Ok we’re gonna see if Mitzi and all the rest of them will come up just as easy by doing this, halfway, stop right here. Go to the middle of that box.

Kerry:

Right here?

Aaron Fechter:

Yeah push up so that it doesn’t drag on the concrete at all

Kerry:

Ok.

Aaron Fechter:

Here we go.

[Video continues in background]

Chris Thrash: (Voiceover)

So one thing led to another. I found out that Creative Engineering, the ones who made the characters, were still open for business. They had a few shows left and after about a year I persuaded Aaron Fechter, the owner of Creative Engineering, to uh- sell me a show. Obviously I don’t just have a bunch of money to throw out like that uh- cause you know I- I’m working a full time job and all that and you know to make things work. So um- I had the uh- at first I had the stress of that, I was like “Here I am right here at the door, I’ve got it open now what am I gonna do with it?” uh- so I had a full time job, I had a part time job dj-ing at a skate rink, if I had to cut grass, you wanted me to wash your car. I would do almost anything to get up the money. So for almost 2 years I worked and worked and worked and worked to get the show. When we went to go pick the characters up from Creative Engineering, uh- the guy Aaron he had uh- Aaron Fechter the owner of Creative Engineering helped- helped load the truck, him and another guy um- he had a forklift, which is very good cause they was all still in the original crates. Still straps around the crates, they- they hadn’t been opened since 1983 when they was made. So they was brand brand new when I got them. Uh- I believe it took 7 hours to load the truck and uh- that was like non-stop, we didn’t eat, we didn’t do nothing until the show was loaded on the truck and the door was shut.

[Video sound resumes]

Aaron Fechter:

So uh- we want to thank everyone for joining us today on the Chris Thrash day here at Creative Engineering.

Kerry:

Yeah!

Aaron Fechter:

And uh- Tammy you sit down. Sit down

[Terry the dog sits]

Aaron Fechter & Kerry: Good girl!

Aaron Fechter:

Alright, and we’ll see you all later.

[Scene changes back to the Rock A Fire news segment]

News caster:

There are people in this world who just don’t seem to fit into standard categories.

Aaron Fechter:

Well some people say I’m a puppeteer. And some people say I’m unemployed.

Aaron Fechter & ???: (Singing)

Turninggggggg, yeah!

Aaron Fechter:

Really what I am is an inventor. Ok, where’s my hammer? I’ll fix it.

News caster:

But none of those labels seem to fit Aaron Fechter. Although his approach to life, and work, may be a little unusual, his success at both is nothing short of phenomenal. At 28 he’s responsible for employing well over 200 people, and his corporation’s income tops $20,000,000 per year. With his research labs, studio, and factory located in Orlando Florida, he’s building his dreams so fast that the group of talented people he leads have to run just to keep up at times.

[Scene changes to Present Day Creative Engineering]

Aaron Fechter:

Ok so uh- come on in this is of course the um- the mess we call Creative Engineering. Uh- one time Michael Jackson came to visit us and I was so embarrassed about the mess and it was- then I didn’t bring him in here, I brought him to um- one of the shops we had- another one of the shops we had that was all cleaned up and he wasn’t that entertained. I should have brought him over here and shown him our mess! In discussing Creative Engineering I have to start at the beginning which is really 1973. That’s when I graduated college, I was 19 years old and I decided to build a car that would get really high gas mileage. And it was because we had such long gas lines at the gas pumps those days, they even said we were running out of gas! So I wanted to do something for the world, something for the energy crisis, and I built this little car. I really expected Creative Engineering was going to manufacture this car but the best I could do was to come up with another idea that would raise money to uh- fund the car company. And that idea was The Leaf Eater! What- it was a swimming pool cleaning device, it actually pulled the leaves out of the swimming pool um- faster than any other way. I was knocking on doors, cleaning swimming pools, and I happened to knock on this one door, this guy Paul I remember his name was, uh- said um- uh- he listened to my spiel that I gave him and my spiel always started out with “Hi I’m Aaron Fechter and I’m an inventor! And I’ve invented this Leaf Eater! And it cleans your swimming pool!”. And he looked at me kinda sarcastically and he said, “So, you’re an inventor huh?” I said, “Yes.” he says, “Well an inventor can invent anything.” I said, “Yes I can invent anything!” and so he says, “Well could you invent a control system to control a shooting gallery for an amusement park?” I said, “Sure!” Haha! He didn’t actually think I was gonna do it. But I figured I could do it. I had an electronics background and um- that’s how I got into entertainment because um- I built the shooting gallery, his company was building a talking horse and I loved it, it was a little animatronic talking horse. I started getting all these invitations to build talking bears and talking monsters of various sorts. And uh- before you know it I was building uh- whole shows!

[Scene shows the Wolf Pack 5 with the RAE “Baseball” segment audio over it]

Billy Bob: (Singing)

I like to play baseball

I like to go swimming

We like to go to movies

Looney Bird: (Singing)

With pretty women

[Scenes change to show the Wolf Pack 5 an IAAPA with Aaron talking over]

Aaron Fechter:

By 1978 I took an entire show, it was called the Wolf Pack 5, to the IAAPA. And uh- the um- the crowd was amazed by it and by 1979 uh- it was- it was clear that it was going to be something big and um- when I found the talented people who knew how to produce the uh- the sculptures, they could really sculpt that gorilla to make it look just like a gorilla. And uh- the people who could paint it, you know they had airbrushers, and the electronic engineers who could, instead of my little wire rack boards, they could actually put together circuit boards that worked and had all the specifications up to- up to speed. And um- it’s obvious that there’s music involved, there’s script writing, um- there’s painting, there’s mold making, there’s pieces that- that you make out of rubber, you sculpt em out of clay, you make em out of rubber, you pull em out of molds. Um- you have to assemble mechanical devices, you have to work with hinges, um- it’s everything that you can imagine, you weld, you solder, you drill, um- you have to learn something about electronics. Animatronics is like everything there is in the universe put together because you’re creating- you’re creating an artificial lifeform.

Chris Thrash:

Well you have uh- what’s called Mac Valves that’s on the floor up under the characters, that’s one purpose for the stage, so it hides the Mac Valves. The Mac Valves suck the air and uh- and it blows it back into a muffler so it makes em come alive, makes the arms move and all that, makes em look realistic and it just sucks the air out from here. And you got sooo many Mac Valves just constantly going so it takes a lot of air to run it.

[Scene shows a shots of a town]

Chris Thrash:

Well, I’ve lived here in Phoenix city all my life. I was born in Columbia, Georgia, the next town over, but you know I’ve lived in Phoenix city ever since I was born. It’s been my only town. Some people know it as Sin City, was a lot of gambling and prostitution and a lot of crime like gangsters and stuff, but they cleaned that up many many many years ago, there’s absolutely no gambling allowed here now and they really cleaned the place up a lot it’s- it’s pretty- It’s a really quiet town. Nice place to live.

[Scene show Chris’s house]

Chris Thrash:

I live in a small house but I don’t- I- I- I- don’t like having a big house it’s just, more to keep up with. And um- a small couch in here, I like it. Um- and I like the neighborhood I- you know I- I- I’ve left my house before to go to the store and just- just left all the lights on and the doors unlocked you know? And I didn’t worry about it. Uh- my house has only been broke into one time and believe it or not that was a “friend”. So as far as the neighborhood itself, I couldn’t ask for a better place. It’s really quiet here. Well, it’s all I drink. I don’t drink tea, I don’t drink water, I don’t drink any other dark colored sodas, it’s just Mountain Dew. This is- I drink probably a little more than 2 liters a day. Depends on how long I stay up. Uh- no pacific reason I just started drinking it when I was a kid and I just always preferred it over the rest of them. I just don’t care to drink anything else. You ever see me I got a Mountain Dew in my hand, heheh. I know a few of my neighbors, of course I know my next door neighbors cause of the kids coming over all the time. Um- then I have my neighbors on the other side of me that purchased a car at the dealership where I work. And uh- I have some neighbors around the corner that I’ve known for quite a few years um- you know, just a few people here and there.

Girl:

It’s nice, I like it, it’s amazing. It’s very amusing, Stella likes it too, she likes all the dancing and how it is.

Interviewer:

What’s your favorite character?

Girl:

Um, probably Fatz. Which one’s your favorite Stella?

Stella: (quietly)

Billy Bob

Girl:

Talk!

Stella:

Billy Bob.

Girl:

Your favorite one’s Billy Bob?

Chris Thrash:

They absolutely love it, they come over every opportunity they can. But uh- there’s some other kids in the neighborhood who like to come and watch it and uh- had a few birthday parties here, uh- absolutely for free my- my payment is just to see- see the joy in the child that I had when I was their- I was their age. I want to share that with everybody that wants to see it.

Older Girl:

I like the show, I like the chicken dance. It gives you excitement um- you get real excited, your heart is beating, basically you just dance around and have a lot of fun. Um- I like Billy Bob is my favorite- I think he’s my favorite out of all the characters. He’s real excitement and Looney Bird.

[Scene shows the kids running and dancing along to the song]

[Scene changes to the Cyberstar “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood” Segment]

All: (Singing)

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood

A wonderful day in the neighborhood

Would you be mine?

Could you be mine?

Won’t you be my neighbor?

[Band laughs]

Travis Schefer:

The first time I went to Showbiz was in 1984 and I was 4 years old, um- we had been invited to my cousins birthday party. And being that I was so young I don’t remember it that well but my mom tells me that I got near the showroom, took one look at the show and took off running and if my grandma hadn’t been lagging a little bit behind I probably would have been out the doors and out in the parking lot.

Mike Sherpenburg:

And I remember when I was in the- I guess in Kindergarten, uh- this little girl in my class had called and invited me to this place called Showbiz Pizza and I had no idea what to expect I was just told there were these robots and pizzas and I’m expecting these robot waiters bringing pizza to the table and I get there and they’re these giant plush animals singing to us while we’re eating pizza and I’m like- I was just astounded, I was like “This is so cool!”

Travis Schefer:

In my school work and my journals and everything I would write about them, I would tell stories, I would harp left and right, probably talking my way out of future visits to my parents just driving them nuts with it but it really um- it was everything to me as a kid. It’s hard to describe exactly how much it meant cause I don’t know if there’s anything today that strikes me that strongly as it did Showbiz when I was a kid.

Kerry:

I was actually working at Chuck E. Cheese as a teenager and um- my early 20’s. And um- one of my- one of my friends um- actually introduced me to the Rock A Fire. She lent me a Rock A Fire tape and I saw it and- and I’ve never- I’ve never seen anything like that before.

Mike Sherpenburg:

I’d take the dolls, I’d take stuffed animals, and I would actually recreate the restaurant. I would play Showbiz pizza and I’d have video games and I’d make a little coin slot for my atari.

Damon Breland:

Back in those days at Showbiz you had the Billy Bob merry go round and the Billy Bob farris wheel and you know that was all part of it. So mom and dad, they- they never had to tell me to go to study and they never had to tell me to go do my homework because that’s something I would always do on my own cause I knew I wanted to get the good grades because I was gonna get to go to Showbiz.

Mike Sherpenburg:

But the big thing was- was the show and I would put records on and I’d have the little dolls and I’d move them around. And so to me that’s really- that was the most special thing of my childhood was when we could go to Showbiz, that was- anytime my mom wanted, I did something, was like “What do you want to do to celebrate?”. It was, “Let’s go to Showbiz.”.

[ “Pizza Toppings” Showbiz ad plays]

[Scene changes to Aaron in the Creative Engineering building]

Aaron Fechter:

After Bob Brock and I met uh-, late 1979, and we forged an agreement to start Showbiz Pizza Place, uh- things just really took off. I mean, those guys- they meant business. When they said to me “Aaron we want you to build lots of shows. We’re not talking about 10 shows a year like you’re used to. We’re talking about like 10 shows a month. Can you do it?” and again I said, “Sure!” Heh! How we were gonna do it had to be figured out but the answer of course had to be yes.

[Welcome in to Showbiz ad plays]

[Low sound of drums and electricity]

Narrator

Ladies and gentlemen, the world’s most advanced entertainment has now joined forces with the world’s finest pizza!

[Drums and electricity grows in volume]

All: (Singing)

Welcome in to Showbiz Pizza, Where we’re glad to meet you and greet you!

[Song continues in the background while other footage plays and Aaron continues to talk]

Aaron Fechter:

It was a huge dream come true for us, it was like being in rock and roll. Exactly like being in rock and roll. So uh- things just started taking off and before you know it we were building 40 shows in a quarter, 40 Rock A Fire Explosions in a quarter. And it was a tremendous dream uh- we were- I was traveling to new restaurants opening 2 to 3 a week and uh- it was just going great guns all the way up until we had 100 restaurants open. In fact I remember the 100th restaurant opened in Dallas and there was a huge celebration, in fact in that particular celebration um- I dressed up in a Billy Bob costume and was flown in in a helicopter where I did a performance as Billy Bob before 100’s maybe 1000’s of children, indignataries from the city. So it was- it was just a huge time that- in my life and um- at that point, when we opened our 100th restaurant, that’s when we realized- or that’s when the people who controlled the money realized that we were losing money.

[Song ends as scene changes to Chris with his wife]

Chris Thrash:

This is my wife, Sandy Thrash. We’ve been married for 5 years, we met at the skating rink where I used to work uh- DJing. She’s uh- Rock A Fire fan number 2 haha.

Sandy Thrash:

Well the head of uh- they used to uh- popular place to hang out after school skating was- would be- Walmart or Waffle House and I thought he would be there. And I wanted to meet up with him haha!

[Scene shows Aaron sitting with Kerry]

Aaron Fechter: Welp uh- I heard of Kerry when I found out there was a fan base. At first I didn’t even know there was a fan base, where there was people who still actually liked the Rock A Fire Explosion that grew up with it and they liked it. When I found out there was a fan base I was also told about this intriguing young beautiful fan named Kerry. And um- I said, “Well that’s cool but I bet she’s too young for me.” and uh- that was- that was true too heheheheh.

[Scene changes back to Chris and Sandy]

Sandy Trash:

I was scared hahaha!

Chris Thrash:

The first night you come in the booth, I called you up in there-

Sandy Thrash:

Yeah and he asked me what song uh- could he play for me and uh- and I was nervous and all. And I didn’t talk much

Chris Thrash:

Put your head down said,

Chris Thrash: (Imitating Sandy)

Nothing, nothing. Heheh.

Sandy Thrash:

Yeah. Put my head down and said “Nothing, nothing.” and my friend had to uh help me out and talk to Chris and all. And then uh- after skating my friend gave him a hug and then naturally I’m a huggable person so I hugged too. So, hehe!

[Scene changes back to Aaron and Kerry]

Kerry:

But we talked on the phone first, we did email too and everything.

Aaron Fechter:

She wouldn’t talk!

Kerry:

He wouldn’t let me talk!

Aaron Fechter:

I called her- I mean she called me-

Kerry:

You wouldn’t let me talk!

Aaron Fechter:

I always let you talk!

Kerry:

No you don’t! Well n- no he wouldn’t let me talk. He would ask me questions and then I would go to answer them and then he would be onto something else.

Aaron Fechter:

She wouldn’t answer the questions. It was like dead silence and it was like awkward dead silence and I’d have to like, ok I’ll fill this awkward dead silence! And she wouldn’t talk.

Kerry:

No…

Aaron Fechter:

So I remember that phone call, she wouldn’t say a word and when the phone call was over I was like, “Jeez she didn’t say anything!” you know?

[Both laugh]

Aaron Fechter:

I said, “We’re not gonna get along very well, oh wait a minute maybe she’s a good listener.”. And she is!

[Scene changes back to Chris and Sandy]

Chris Thrash:

Finally her friends talked to me enough, I called them up there and she had her head laying on the counter, wouldn’t even hardly talk to me she was so nervous. I- I was the one to ask her out because I knew that she liked me and I liked her too so it just- it went from there. We even got married in the skate rink

[Scene Changes back to Aaron and Kerry]

Aaron Fechter:

So anyway we made it through that first phone call but in that first phone call I found out that she had made a video that commemorated or- or-, documented, something about The Rock A Fire Explosion and so that gave us something in common and uh- she offered to send it to me if I promised not to laugh at it and she sent it to me. It was a video about The Rock A Fire Explosion being removed from Chuck E. Cheese and being replaced with the Chuck E. Cheese characters and um- and how sad she and a friend of hers were that that happened and at the end of the video it said: “We dedicate this video to Aaron Fechter.” and apparently they had written that, Kerry, and put it on the video before we had ever spoken or knew each other. So I was- I was uh- very touched by that, that dedication.

[Scene changes back to Chris and Sandy]

Chris Thrash:

The wedding uh- it was a little shaky at first being at the skate rink cause no one had ever been married in that skating rink ever, and um- I told them it just has to be, that’s where we met that’s where it all started at. So uh- so we did, right under the giant mirror ball in the center of the skate floor, we uh- well back up even more we even got I uh- asked her to get engaged, to be married, at the skate rink. Stopped the whole- stopped the whole show and walked out there on the skate floor and knelt down right in front of her and asked her to marry me and she was so nervous and shy, heheh. We even played a little joke about it because I had already asked her before but um- she acted like she was dissing me, put hand up and walked off, and I was like well, you know, this is all play.

[Scene changes back to Aaron and Kerry]

Aaron Fechter:

So uh- uh- finally we did meet, we finally met. I was driving my RV across the country and I was going to my sister’s graduation from medical school, happened to be going right through Boston and uh- we arranged to meet each other in the summer of 2003. And that’s when I found out something very funny about Kerry, she has a few funny idiosyncrasies. Like for example she’s very afraid of spiders.

Kerry:

Well who isn’t?

Aaron Fechter:

You know? And um- I haven’t told you this yet honey but we accidently dropped a box of spiders right on the other side of this door

[Kerry laughs and then yelps when Aaron grabs her from behind]

[Scene changes to the Concept Unification Installation tape]

Narrator:

First remove all props such as: Choo Choo’s tree, Billy Bob’s lamp, Billy Bob’s campfire, Looney Bird’s can, all rocks and flowers, and destroy all of these props as they will not be used again.

Chris Thrash:

It just blew my mind the change, they changed everything then. I thought that for 10 years they were just gone, there was nothing. Just gone. All I had was a set of dolls and an audio cassette from the stage and recorded some of the shows on a tape so it was hard to hear audio. But uh- it was all I had, was a couple of records and some dolls.

Travis Schefer:

Most kids when they grow up kinda out-grow Showbiz and I was at that age where it wasn’t exactly the cool thing to be going to anymore. It was probably- I was probably 10 or 11 years old and it had been a while since I had been in one and I noticed that they had changed the name to Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza and I really didn’t think too much of it. And I remember going in there and seeing this bastardized version of The Rock A Fire Explosion on stage and just being completely appalled by it. And it had been probably a couple of years since I had been in one and it was at least another 4 or 5 years before I stepped foot in one again because I had no interest at all in seeing the Chuck E. Cheese characters up there in place of the Rock A Fire.

Aaron Fechter:

So with- our problems were that we needed more money. Or we needed to spend less, one or the other. At 200 restaurants the word was given to stop making shows, we’re not gonna open any more restaurants, 200 that’s it we’re not opening any more.

Travis Schefer:

And from that point there was a wedge drawn, the financial organization gets redone. Corporate Law is trying to find out where they’re losing money and one of the big expenses was Creative Engineering.

Aaron Fechter:

All the sudden I had to get rid of 100’s of employees. Showbiz Pizza Place got rid of lots of employees. They were trying to cut costs everywhere

Mike Sherpenburg:

And at that point the Rock A Fire still existed but they didn’t have a place to go. And they began licensing them out to other restaurants because they had left over inventory cause at one point apparently they just told- they just told Creative Engineering, “We’re not making anymore shows.”

Aaron Fechter:

They decided to take a look at another idea. And the idea was to merge with or buy out Chuck E. Cheese. Chuck E. Cheese was a separate company at that point, there was Chuck E. Cheese and there was Showbiz Pizza Place. And as badly as Showbiz Pizza Place was doing, Chuck E. Cheese was doing worse. Now, I can veto whatever I want, and I wanted to veto that, I wanted to find another way. So, Brock Hotel said, “Look, this is the only way. Nothing else is gonna save us. So you cannot veto this.” That didn’t mean, necessarily, the end of The Rock A Fire Explosion. They were still willing to keep The Rock A Fire Explosion in Showbiz Pizza Place but the only way they were willing to keep The Rock A Fire Explosion was if I gave them the copyrights. And they could then have complete and total control and power over the characters, that meant they get to decide what the voices are, what the scripts are, what the music is, they get to program them themselves, everything they wanted to do and I would have absolutely nothing to do about it, no say about it. But you gotta realize that back then I still felt like The Rock A Fire Explosion had a big future. Movies, cartoons, I wanted to go some place else with The Rock A Fire Explosion besides pizza restaurants, I wasn’t ready just to give it up! And besides, they didn’t offer me a plug nickel for the copyrights. When I spoke to Gene, Kram, about this, who proposed to me that I give them the copyrights to The Rock A Fire Explosion, the trademarks, the copyrights, all ownership of the copyrights, he said, “Aaron, what you get out of this is that your characters, Billy Bob, will live, they’ll live on. But let me tell you something, if you don’t accept this deal and if you don’t give us your copyrights your characters are gonna die. We- we’re gonna get rid of um and we’re gonna replace them with Chuck E. Cheese.” I said, “Ok, I’ll take that challenge. I’ll take that challenge. I’ll- I will do something with those characters! And I- I will do it without you then. But I will not just give you those characters. My life, my blood, my voice, my heart, and believe me, all of the closest people in my lives. And that included all those men in the studio and women in the studio who help me. Our lives depend on this. And I’m gonna keep those characters and we’re gonna do something with them.”

Travis Schefer:

So they went through what’s called Concept Unification. And what it basically became was, they took the Rock A Fire robots, left the animation, the animatronics, everything that was on the inside pretty much stayed intact they just kinda re-arranged the characters, slapped different cosmetics on them and tried to pass it off as a completely different show.

Mike Sherpenburg:

And that was the beginning of the end in terms of The Rock A Fire being in Showbiz Pizza and, I think for a time they did actually still have The Rock A Fire in the stores but after about 1990 they converted the concept over to Chuck E. Cheese and that was that.

Chris Thrash:

I definitely feel like- like these are my- like these are my children you know? I- I- I’m concerned about the temperature in the room all the time, uh- i’m concerned with the humidity, all these factors- all these factors play in uh- how well the characters do and i always want them to be at top notch so, it’s like- it’s like a parent caring for the child you know? You don’t want to see your child suffer not for one minute and uh- it’s almost like- like they’re real to me and I don’t want them to suffer, if I know something hurts them then uh- then I got to take that away you know? I want them to be running good and feeling good all the time. It’s just like having children, you know, I have a room full of kids. Heh. When things get bad for me I just come in here and just- you know, some people use TV as a relaxation, some people like to take a hot bath, I like to come to my- to my show cause they don’t have problems you know? Uh- they just come in here and make them all go away from me, for a little while anyway. My dad, you know, he’s sick right now with cancer and he keeps going to Birmingham to do chemo and um- he just- he gets real sick when he comes home and it seems like he gets worse and worse, and you know I really wish that he would just live the rest of his life happy and not be sick you know? And um- I like to invite him to come over and- come over here a few more times you know? And share that with me. Cause I really love him and I’m going to miss him and I hope that he stays 15, 20 more years you know? You never know with that kinda thing. But uh- it’s problems like that or problems at work, sometimes if you just can’t- if you can’t handle the stress of life, you know, people pick different ways to relieve that and uh- I don’t- I don’t choose to go to drugs or crime or anything like that, this is my escape from reality. And uh- so it’s very much part of my reality, Is this show. I need it and it needs me.

[Scene changes to Chris getting into the Billy Bob walkaround costume]

[Scene changes again to 2008 Creative Engineering]

Aaron Fechter:

I’ve been working here a lot lately. There’s- there’s- I’ve been programming shows again. Partly because of Chris, being inspired by Chris and wanting to, I don’t know now I’ve finally got someone who understands the joy of programming so, I wanted to get into it and see if I could raise the bar and then let him raise it and then I’ll raise it and we’ll see what we can come up with! But um- also because the Jordan customer, the customer who’s buying that show for Jordan is uh- has asked me to program some news shows for him. So I actually get to hopefully make a little money out of it at the same time.

[Scene changes to a tour of the warehouse]

Aaron Fechter:

As we come over here, this is a staging area. And I call it the staging area meaning we’re getting the stuff together to send out to one of my customers, this show is gording- going to Jordan and uh- it’s just like The Rock A Fire Explosion in every way except that Fatz has been changed and modified according to the specifications, they wanted- they wanted to have a friendly looking gorilla, they didn’t want one that would scare the kiddies and I think it- it scared some of the women too but uh- you know, we changed him into a more friendly uh- looking gorilla just for the Jordan customers and we call him J-Fatz. This is the back, you’re looking at the back end of what I call The Star Launcher, which is a machine I invented at the beginning of the century, 2000, that is still not ready uh- I need some new technology to still come out before it can be ready but it’s kinda like an American Idol kiosk, so um- so you know it’s still sitting here and probably will be for the next 10 years. This room is the costuming department, or was the costuming department, now again it’s a mess, I apologize for the mess I- I would have cleaned up if I’d have known you were coming. But um- see we got rid of all the sewing machines and everything but still around the sides of the room are the costumes that are left that we never used. Now when the fans come in here they love to come in here to this room because there’s always something in here that somebody needs, you know whether it’s a costume a- a- coat for Fatz or a walkaround costume for Billy Bob that they don’t have, or um- or even a mask, or even this!

[Aaron holds up the skinned Fatz]

Aaron Fechter:

You know? You just never know what the treasures are that are just laying around. When I told you I- I took apart the Fatz, the- the J-Fatz character and created a- a- a wider character, well this is the fur that came off of him. So somewhere out there somebody’s got a beat up old Fatz that would love to have this fur and there it is. And it will probably be there for like, years until this guy comes in here and then- and I’ll trade him that for something. There’s a buffalo and moose on the wall, here’s Mama Grandbags stuck between this shelf and the tape deck that played the- the uh- show. So uh- yeah! There we go. So let’s go out this way and go back down the hall of despair, I just- just made that up. Uh- we’re about to enter the uh- the board room ok? In its day, it was a very sexy room. Let’s see, ah look at that! We got blue lights on the ceiling. Very impressive. Heheheheh. And this is where we had all our meetings, after uh- you know when we started downsizing, any time we had to fire 20 or 30 employees we’d pack this room full of people and we’d tell them- we’d tell them which ones had to go you know? This is the graveyard of 80’s audio equipment. All the stuff that I thought would be treasures got put into this room to protect it from theft. Well, it’s kinda funny now when you look at it because, I mean it’s stuff that you would never use cause it’s all analog stuff, I mean who uses that anymore? Goodbye graveyard of 80’s audio equipment. So lets- lets proceed, I’m gonna show you the mold room where we actually have the plaster molds that we make the rubber masks in. Lining the walls of this room are all these white blobs which are actually molds. And the molds are what we make the characters faces out of. For example here’s a Beach Bear mask, now this mask is waaay too thick. It can’t be used, it’s total garbage, so um- maybe- maybe someone will want it or something, you never know. One man’s trash right? So um- anyway all of these molds make all of these different parts. For example, just- just grabbing one at random, here’s Mitzi’s ear. All made out of plaster, and so just imagine all the people that were working with these molds and laying up all these pieces. There’s this whole laundry list of rubber pieces that we had to make up. So this was the uh- desk that Ray, the giant in the basement, used to sit at and he did all his airbrush work with his little tools and his paints, and um- and this is- this is where he actually made the masks back in- back in the good old days. Ok now, um- don’t step in this right here, whatever you do do not step in that. We haven’t had it analyzed and I have no idea what it is. But it’s sticky. Now you’re really in the bowels of Creative Engineering now! This- this is- once you pass the sticky goo, you’re into a mess. Things kinda cave into the walkway areas you know, after a while the aisles you created no longer exist, I don’t know what that is, there must be some physical phenomenon that creates that- that uh- catastrophe that you can no longer walk through the aisles. This corner that we’re in now holds all of the speculative animatronic characters that I’ve built over the years. This tree went with The Wizard of Oz show, it’s a bad tree, very bad. You can see, he’s got that attitude going on there. And um- back here it’s gonna be kinda hard to see, very difficult to get into cause all this stuff if just packed back here but back here would be The Wizard of Oz show, I’m kinda flashing the flashlight here on the scarecrow, and there’s a tin man back there and there’s a great big gorilla that beats his chest and recites Shakespeare, and a few Rock A Fire Explosion characters without their costumes and their faces, and a couple of Uncle Klunk’s turned into santa clauses, and a whole bunch of pieces and parts. It would take a long time to go through all this stuff and figure out what it all is but it- it took a long time to build it all too. There’s some neat stuff back there. But that’s what’s wrong with the animatronic business, you build this really cool stuff that everyone says is really cool, you spend a fortune building it, you spend a fortune taking it to the convention and showing everybody and everybody “ooh”’s and “ah”’s over it and then, no body buys it cause it’s too expensive! That’s the business. Welcome to the world of business. So as we go through here, we’re looking at a bunch of crates. Now these crates, let’s see if we can pass through this aisle right here ok? Here I’ll just kinda carry this out of the way. There, it was in the wrong place heh. Um- the crates that you’re looking at are the last crates that have un-used Rock A Fire Explosions in them. The crates on this side are sold, these are the one’s Andrew’s getting that he’s gonna put in his warehouse, he’s gonna have his Rock A Fire Explosion, the crates on this side actually have the last unsold show that’s never been used of The Rock A Fire Explosion. They’re all collected together, they might be missing a couple little tiny odds and ends that we let out on the piece of paper here but otherwise this is a complete show, it’s the very last one of 280 shows that we built between 1980 and 1983 and it’s sitting right here in crates, i don’t know where it’s gonna go but it’s gonna be sold, it’s gonna be delivered and it’s gonna be set up, no one knows where the last show will go. We’ll probably have a small ceremony, a service or something when it- when it does finally go out and um- and then that’ll be the end of the sales of The Rock A Fire Explosion forever.

[Scene changes to shots of all of the voice actors for The Rock A Fire and shots from 80’s Creative Engineering]

Aaron Fechter:

I complain about the fact that, you know I’ve lost friends who were on my payroll and they were my friends as long as they were on my payroll and I’ve never had more friends as I had in 1981 and 82 when I had 325 people on the payroll. And it’s true, when it was over some of the people are still my friends and some of them aren’t, but- but no matter who you are, no matter how cool you are, and I’m not cool, but even if you are cool, and you are- and you make friends easily, you still can only count your friends on one hand.

[Scene shows Aaron playing the keyboard]

Aaron Fechter:

Is that the one that goes “We’re having a birthday party, today is a special one, and having a birthday party is a lot of fun.” and uh- yeah and that was actually one we called Sal’s Birthday because uh- the greatest musician I ever worked with uh- who we called Sal back in those days, wrote that and uh- very touching song about uh— heh, it’s making me cry cause- cause I miss Sal, but it’s- it’s about- it’s about a child growing up and uh- um– you’re probably gonna have to retake this but it’s- it’s about- it’s- it’s the- it’s the sentimentality of lighting a candle for every year that’s passed. So, let’s light up a few candles. I’m sorry, heh.

Aaron Fechter: (Singing)

We’re having a birthday party

Today is a special one

And having a birthday party is a lot of fun

A lot of fun!

So light, light up the candles

One for every year that’s gone

Have a happy birthday

Yeah yeah yeah

Yeah yeah yeah

Yeah yeah yeah

Travis Schefer:

The future of The Rock A Fire Explosion I think is going to be pretty much limited to uh- the online world.

Mike Sherpenburg:

We’re in the digital age and people today, children today I don’t think relate to moving robots. So I really don’t see restaurants and amusement parks being where this stuff is going.

Travis Schefer:

And I think that um- the fans- that the Rock A Fire’s gonna live on in their homes, in their hearts, and in their memories. And I think that’s pretty much what the legacy of The Rock A Fire is gonna be. You know, they were a pop icon, they were huge at the time and I think they really deserve to be remembered for what they were.

Chris Thrash:

I picture it then, a name brand that everybody knows again. And I would like to be a part of making it go there, if it goes to cartoons or t-shirts or shows going back in restaurants, whatever- whatever its future may be, I’d like to- I’d like to say I had a hand in that. And I think back to when I was a little kid sitting at that table eating pizza, and thinking in my mind that one day I’d like to have that show but never really thinking I’d have it. And then actually taking it and bringing it back for- for a new generation to enjoy. That’s where I’d like to see it go.

Damon Breland:

Youtube has been such a phenomenon with The Rock A Fire and- and bringing everybody back into perspective as far as I remember them, I saw them as a kid you know? And most of them are grown up now and they have kids of their own and are like “ I want my kid to see this.” so I- I do, I hope they come back, unfortunately I just don’t believe we’ll ever see Aaron Fechter producing brand new shows again to be in stores.

[Scene changes back to Aaron being interviewed]

Aaron Fechter:

I guess it’s kinda sad you know, that Creative Engineering had to shut down. Um- you know we’re not completely shut down because I’m still here. But, you know that we- we went from 325 employees to just me. And uh- a lot of people were really great, there were a lot of great people here and- and a lot of, what you’re- where you’re at right now is just hustle bustle with artists and mechanics and engineers at one time and- and as- as we lost people w- well the things that they did were no longer done and the tools that they used they would just lay down, like right here, this tool here has probably been sitting here for 20 years you know? The guy that worked here at this desk and sat in this chair, passed away more than 10 years ago. And he probably used this on his last day. And all of the pieces that are here, these were his tools. And um- and they’re still here. And I really have no reason to move them yet I- I guess when I finally have to give up this building it’ll be time to move everything and throw away what needs to be thrown away and maybe give the rest away to the fans. But until I need this tool here, it’s gonna stay right there. I don’t even feel like I have the right to move it. So um- as we go through the building and you see things sitting around, it’s possible that those things were sitting there for 20 years. And then there was the final day that the last 3, there were just 3 employees besides myself that left in the beginning of 2003, and- and on that last day I had to learn to write checks myself because the last person to leave was my book keeper. I had to learn to reconcile bank statements and credit card statements. And as people left and as rooms closed down, things just sort of- just became stagnant. You know, the things that sat there started collecting dust, um- they started deteriorating, masks started melting in the heat, uh it- it sorta became spooky and it- it happened over a large number of years and as- and as we go through the shop and we look at all of these things that are still here but deteriorating, it- it is spooky. But- but- but it’s strange in a way because- because I don’t really feel like that much time has passed. That the evidence that the time has passed, is to see the- the deterioration. And- and to see that my children are grown and they have children. It’s um- it’s really strange that I’m still sitting here in this- in this chair that’s been here for so many years and um- and we could if we wanted to tomorrow, make a mask, we could make new claws right here in this mold or we could- we could pick up these tools and clean them and use them again and somehow or another I have this feeling that we’re going to.

[Scene changes to Chris walking in the Billy Bob walkaround]

Chris Thrash:

But when the show finally turned on for the first time, to get the bugs worked out of it you know? It was finally in a position where we could turn it on, I had tears in my eyes. You know, there was some problems, there were some bugs that needed to be worked out, you know little knick knack little stuff. But it didn’t matter, I seen it. You know, they came to life you know? For 25 years they’ve been sitting in a crate and I just breathed the first breath of life into them. And uh- you know, yet again there’s no words to describe it. I sat here and I cried like a child, because my dream had just came true.

[Scene changes to The Rock A Fire performing “Hello Sunshine”]

Mitzi Mozzarella: (Singing)

So hard to say goodbye

Meaning it today

I’ve said goodbye before

Leaving you alone

Mitzi Mozzarella & Moon: (Singing)

By the sea

Mitzi Morrarella: (Singing)

So hard to

Mitzi Mozzarella & Moon: (Singing)

Say goodbye

Beach Bear: (Singing)

Hello sunshine

Come into my life

Hello Sunshine

Come into my life

All: (Singing)

In honesty it’s been a while

Since we had reason left to smile

Hello Sunshine

Come into my life

I’m a minger

You’re a minger too

So come on minger

I want to ming with you

In honesty it’s been a while

Since we had reason left to smile

Hello sunshine

Come into my life

You’re not so innocent

You’re a disgrace to your country

If you fled a million miles

I’d chase you for a day

Fatz Geronimo: (Singing)

If I could be bothered

All: (Singing)

Hello sunshine

Hello sunshine

Hello sunshine

Hello sunshine

Hello sunshine

Come into my life

[Song ends and Fatz winks at the camera, then the credits roll]

[Scene in the credits shows an outtake from the documentary]

Chris Thrash:

I’m Chris Thrash, I’m 32 years old- no 31 years old heheheh. Dang it!

Damon Breland:

This is Mitzi Mozzarella, she was the female lead for the-

[Mitzi doll falls over and everyone starts laughing]

Mike Sherpenburg:

One more question like that and this interview is over.

Chris Thrash:

I just think to myself, “Well if they are alive they’re not gonna bother me you know? I’m their daddy more or less”

Aaron Fechter:

Roll em!

[Aaron clacks a producer clapboard]

Aaron Fechter:

We start, cut, we’re done. And at the end of the day somebody has to yell, “That’s a wrap!” and then- and then as far as I’m concerned if we do that we had a good time.

Chris Thrash:

It’s good to know that my show is appreciated. Even after all these years you know? It’s amazing.