Milton Glaser: Designer of the Sesame Place logo

Reader Christopher Mercaldo did a little research on the Sesame Place logo.

Image from SesamePlace.com

 Turns out it was designed by one Milton Glaser. Glaser is a celebrated artist, most famous for his Bob Dylan poster, the "I Love NY" logo and the DC Comics logo:

Images from Wikipedia

Glaser was born in New York and educated at Manhattan's High School of Music and Art (now Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts). He graduated from the Cooper Union in 1951 and later, via a Fulbright Scholarship, the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna under Giorgio Morandi. 

Image from Monocle.com

Glaser has had a major impact on contemporary illustration and design. His work has won numerous awards from Art Directors Clubs, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Society of Illustrators and the Type Directors Club. He is a member of Alliance Graphique International (AGI), and in 1979 he was made Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. 

In 2009, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama. 

Image from containerlist.glaserarchives.org

It's interesting to find out, but not surprising. Its a wonderful logo:

Image from SesamePlace.com

1995 Park Map

Many, many thanks to Christopher Mercaldo who provided us with scans of a 1995 park map!

There is a whole lot to go over in the map, and I will over the coming days, but first and foremost is the Sesame Place logo:

 As Christopher points out, Sesame Place had almost abandoned the classic "street sign" logo at this point.. This alternate logo (which seems far less interesting) is still used on merchandise but Sesame Place has returned to using the classic logo for most things.

The front gate(s) has always had the classic logo, I believe.

We will look at this page in close ups in the future, but this gives us a wonderful look at the layout of things like "Sesame Beach" and stuff I was unaware of like "Funtastic Laboratory" and "Runaway Rapids"!

So many wonderful things on this map! Again, I thank Christopher Mercaldo for sending this in. There is an email link on the right, and I encourage you to look for anything you have that will help us remember the park we grew up with!

Old signs

The original Sesame Place signs were styled to look like the park logo (which in turn was styled after the Sesame Street "street sign" logo.)

The park logo hasn't changed much, but the old signage around the park has been changed.

Big Bird appared on the sign for Big Bird's Nest:

 Rubber Duckie had his sign:

 The Amazing Mumford had a sign with (possibly) the longest name of any attraction:

Twiddlebugs had two different attractions and signs:

Herry had his own attraction sign:

Herry also had a similar sign inside Mr. Hooper's Emporium. It said "Fun & Games":

Frazzle monster appeared, fittingly, on the Monster Maze sign:

 He also appeared on a sign inside The Sesame Food Factory, over "The Hot Kitchen" section:

Pedal Power

Images from YouTube

Pedal Power was a science element at Sesame Studio that demonstrated how electricity could be generated by pedaling a stationary bicycle. As the kids pedaled, a neon board would light up. The faster they pedaled the brighter the light became.

Pedal Power opened with the park in 1980 and lasted at least until the late 1990s.

1993 Photo of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon at Sesame Place

1993 AP Photo

The Sesame Slides "Tunnel Slide"

Sesame Slides were a series of colorful slides that were at the park on opening day. They were located near the Nets 'N Climbs.

Image from YouTube

Children would walk up a flight of stairs to a landing from there they could either go down the row of slides that faced the front of the park or a long blue "tunnel slide" that faced the back of the park.

You can see the tunnel slide in the top left of this image:

1981 Image from YouTube

The tunnel was actually a series of pieces that were attached together over a flat slide.

Image from Flickr

Image from Flickr

Amazing Mumford's Water Maze: Version 2

Amazing  Mumford's Water Maze was a play element that opened with the park in 1980.

 1980 Image from YouTube

The attraction was a maze of plastic tunnels and netting with water that would spray over the area, soaking kids as the crawled through the net area.

The attraction was eventually removed and replaced with a similar, more colorful version:

2005 Image from Flickr

This version was removed for the 2006 addition of Elmo's World. 

Today the area is occupied by a walkway and a planter between Elmo's Cloud Chaser and Grover's World Twirl. 

The Turntable

Image from YouTube

The Turntable was a 25 foot stage in front of the Teeny Tiny Tidal Wave. The stage opened in 1993 and was used by the Sesame Brass band.

 Image from webshots

 Image from webshots

At some point a roof was added and the turntable was used for meet and greets (particularly with Big Bird) before 1-2-3 Smile With Me opened.

The Turntable has since been removed.

Sun Belt Sesame Place

Here are three articles about possible locations for the third U.S. Sesame Place park. These articles (all from June 6, 1981) show that Florida was considered.

The second Sesame Place was under construction at the time in Texas. The article from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune also mentions that the Langhorne Sesame Place cost nine million dollars to build.

At this time Sesame Place was owned by Anheuser-Busch and the prospective locations considered were Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and several other Sun Belt cities. 

Oscar's Big Game Show

Oscar's Big Game Show  was a stage show at the Paradise Theater that ran from 2002 to 2005.

Image from Photobucket

The show starred (a puppet) Oscar the Grouch and features contestants chosen from the audience. 

Image from Photobucket

The other performers in the show were Big Bird and "Sal the Trashman". 

Image from Photobucket

The Super Sibling Search

Sky Splash is a six story high water ride where guests ride in a large raft and glide under over-sized props including a giant Rubber Duckie.

Image from themeparkreview

The attraction opened on May 20, 1995 and a contest was held to promote the opening. The contest was promoted thusly:

Sesame Place is calling all twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets or more! The Sesame Street-themed play park in Langhorne, Pa., is looking for all multiplebirth children (3-15 years old) to help launch the opening of a new water adventure called Sky Splash.

There were over 750 applicants and over 50 families were chosen to participate.

Reading Eagle - Aug 6, 1995

Jennifer Hudson at Sesame Place

Jennifer Hudson visited Sesame Place with her son, David Otunga Jr., on Tuesday August 9, 2012.

Image from theybf

 Images from BlackCelebKids

Bert & Count at Sesame Studio Texas

Image from Blogger

Above is an undated image that shows some of the puppets in the Sesame Street Neighborhood Replica that was indoors at the Sesame Place in Texas.

You see Bert and Count Von Count in the window on the right, and Betty Lou in the window on the left.

Here is another picture where you can see the characters:

image  (C) 1982 MCA Nashville

As you can see, the puppets were either re-staged into different positions or were simple animatronics like the Big Bird animatronic at the end of the replica.

image  (C) 1982 MCA Nashville