James “Buster” Corley, one of the founders of the entertainment chain Dave & Buster’s, which offers a small dose of Las Vegas by combining a restaurant with an elaborate arcade, passed away Monday in Dallas on his 72nd birthday.
His death was confirmed by the company.
Police said they were responding to a report of a shooting at a home on the 6600 block of Yosemite Lane, and that the man who was shot died at a hospital after suffering “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.” Police have not identified the man, but Mr Corley lived at an address in the street.
In a statement to the Dallas television station WFAA, Kate Corley, Mr. Corley’s daughter, confirmed the death, saying he had suffered a stroke four months ago “that severely damaged the communication and personality portion of his brain.”
A spokesperson for Dave & Buster’s said Mr Corley had not been involved in the management of the company at the time of his death.
Dave & Buster’s, which now has more than 150 locations in North America, achieved success by combining several beloved activities under one roof: watching sports, eating a burger, playing a game. And unlike Chuck E. Cheese, the old childhood birthday destination, Dave & Buster’s would prove its appeal to adults who also love arcade games, air hockey, and racing simulators. The restaurant invites visitors to compete against friends or win tickets that can be exchanged for prizes as they navigate rows of bright, colorful lights.
The Dave in Dave & Buster’s was David Corriveau, who died in 2015. He and Mr. Corley met in Little Rock, Ark., in the 1970s, when they both owned businesses on the same street near the Capitol. Mr. Corley owned a restaurant called Buster’s, while Mr. Corriveau owned a saloon called Slick Willy’s World of Entertainment.
There was a footbridge connecting the two establishments, and the men noticed customers going to Slick Willy’s to play games and then to Buster’s to eat and drink, Mr Corley said in a 2020 interview on the podcast ‘Excuse me My Take’.
Their thought, he recalled, was, “What we need to do is we need to get these two places together, put them on a bigger scale, put them on a bigger market and launch this thing.”
The first Dave & Buster facility opened in 1982 in a 40,000 square foot warehouse in Dallas. (The company says it was called Dave & Buster’s, not Buster & Dave’s, because of an ill-fated coin toss, but Mr. Corley said on the podcast that the story was a “myth” and a friend suggested the name.)
Although Mr. Corriveau and Mr. Corley started out as business partners, they became “best friends along the way” and godfathers to each other’s children, Mr. Corley said on the podcast.
The company said in a statement that Mr. Corley’s “pioneering spirit and steadfast belief that ‘everybody is somebody’ has laid the foundation for bringing food and games to millions of Dave & Buster guests over the past 40 years.”
James Winston Corley was born on January 2, 1951, in Brookhaven, a small town in southern Mississippi, to Jim Corley, who worked in advertising, and Nancy (Wentworth) Corley, a nursing home administrator.
He married Leacy Suddath in 1980. Information on survivors other than Mr. Corley’s daughter was not immediately available.
Mr. Corley said he was nicknamed Buster from birth, after his father’s best friend. Before he went on to study business, he said, he considered dropping the moniker in favor of something a little more distinguished, like J. Winston or JW. But his father talked him out of it, and he was glad he did.
“Had we called it something in my name, something other than Buster’s,” he said, “it probably never would have worked.”
Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.
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