Cheshire Cat

One of the "science attractions" in Sesame Studio was a mirror setup called "Cheshire Cat".

Image from YouTube

A 1981 St. Joseph News-Press article said the exhibit "splits vision with a vertical mirror."

The exhibit is long gone. The image above is from a Texas Sesame Place commercial, but most of the footage was clearly shot in Langhorne.
I assume the commercial was shot before the Texas park was finished and the Cheshire Cat featured was in Pennsylvania.

The name Cheshire Cat  refers to the character from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland who could appear and disappear at will.




Incidentally, Cookie Monster played "The Cheshire Cookie Cat" in a 2008 Sesame Street DVD:

Image from MuppetWiki

Count's Ball Room News Photos

As I researched yesterday's post on The Count's Ball Room I found three images in three different newspapers that appeared to all feature the same kids.

These pictures were probably all taken within a minute of each other and then sent out to different newspapers.

The first one is from the St. Joseph, MO., News-Press from Sunday, June 7, 1981.

This one features a nice article that lists all the new additions to the park as it started it's second season:
-14 new challenges to "the nations largest collection of computer games" at The Computer Gallery
-More merchandise added to Mr. Hooper's Store
-Several treats added to the Sesame Food Factory menu
-All but three attractions are now open to children AND adults
-Addition of a second Ball Room

The article also lists the park as 2 and 1/2 acres (rather than the often quoted 3 acre opening day size) and says it can accommodate 4,500 guests a day.

Next, an image of the kids in the Ball Room was used in the Youngstown Vindicator on June 29, 1981. This article mentions that the balls are purple and that the park has "40 outdoor play elements, 24 hands-on science exhibits and 60 educational computer games."
The article from the St. Joseph, MO., News-Press from earlier that month listed the educational computer games as numbering "more than 70".

The final one is from The Mount Airy News from Friday June 26, 1981. This one has a similar description to the one above, but with different wording:

The Count's Ball Room

When you ask most adults what they remember about Sesame Place as a child, the answer is usually "the giant ball pit".

Image from YouTube

The main "ball pit" was called The Count's Ball Room (sometimes listed as 'The Count's Ballroom'). It opened with the park in 1980.
A second Ball Room opened the following year.

St. Joseph MO News Press - June 7, 1981 

Images from YouTube

The two images above appear to be of the same Ball Room from different angles. You can see big wire frames in the top image and in the bottom one you see a large orange tarp covering the area to provide some shade.

The employee on the left is taking pictures of the kids in the Ball Room. She has an Oscar the Grouch puppet on her hand.

Image from Trekaroo

The original Ball Room was only about 2 feet deep, but held an estimated 80,000 plastic balls. Over the years the balls (and the carpet surrounding walls) were changed many times and were many different colors.
Muppet Wiki says that the attraction was part of Big Bird's Court, a play area that opened in 1983 and still exists in the park today.

This may have been where one of the Ball Rooms was located.
On a 2004 map only one of the Ball Rooms is listed and it was not near Big Bird's Court. Perhaps the other one was in the area where Grover's World Twirl or Big Bird's Balloon Race now stands.

 2004 Park Map

To back this up, in some early pictures of the Ball Room you see the man-made lake that's behind Sesame Place, before all the trees grew in:

Google Maps image

Image from Muppet Wiki 

Muppet Wiki also says The Count's Ballroom closed to "make way for pools of actual water". This is likely NOT the case. The one that was listed in 2004 was removed in 2006 for the Elmo's World land (specifically Blast Off.)
The other one was also in this area (since this was the only area of the park that existed in 1980) and the only "pools of actual water" are at the bottom of Slippery Slopes (which opened in 1983.)

 2004 Park Map

2006 Park Map

Google Earth Image

The setup for the ball pit (in the images below) seemed to be that you would wait in line and eventually lined up (sitting) along the edge of the pit until the Sesame Place employee gave you the cue to jump and and play.

Image from YouTube

Today there are no Sesame Place Ball Rooms, but the memories of wading through a seemingly endless pit of balls will never fade.

Image from YouTube