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.