Elmo wows 'em at Beale

He's bigger than Elvis and bigger than the Beatles. The star who generated shrieks and screams from his audience at Beale Air Force Base on Tuesday was hairy, red, and very tall.

Many of his fans were in diapers.

Elmo and his "Sesame Street" friends played to a packed movie theater on Main Base as part of the "Sesame Street" Experience USO Tour.

Wearing a red gingham dress and an entranced expression usually reserved for seeing Santa Claus, Bronwyn Paton, 2, reached for the yellow ballerina muppet descending from the stage.

It was a big moment for her, said her mom, Heidi Paton, 36.

The outreach tour — a first for "Sesame Street" — is aimed at pre-school-aged children of military service members. It follows a DVD produced expressly for military families by "Sesame Street" — "Talk, Listen, Connect" — with lessons about "deployments, homecomings," and "changes."

"Parents don't always know how to talk to their kids about these things," said Adam Percy, assistant company manager for the tour. Percy called for a second show Tuesday evening to accommodate the long line of families who could not be squeezed into the 7 p.m. performance, which played to about 450 little and big people. Admission was free.

"Do you ever feel sad?" asked Elmo of the standing- and floor-sitting-room-only crowd. "Like, when you miss your mommy or your daddy?"

Hundreds of tiny voices called out in the affirmative.

Chief Master Sgt. Cameron Bledsoe had been deployed to Iraq during the time his wife Lisa was pregnant with their youngest child.

On Tuesday, Morgan, now 4, sat quietly on the floor with her twirly "Sesame Street" toy in hand and her brother, Logan, 5, close by.

"It was tough," said their mom, Lisa Morgan — also an airman — of her husband's deployment. One of her oldest children developed some anxiety in his father's absence, she said, "and that kind of took me by surprise."

Killian and Zoe Jensen, 3 and 6 respectively, know about deployment too. Their dad just returned after a year away.

The service member adjusts to his or her new job in a new environment, said their mom, Vicky Jensen, 36. But, she said, "It's harder on the families."

Her children were confused and hurt by it, she said.

"It took a couple months for them to stop asking for him every day," Jensen said.

Tuesday's show, as well as free toys and DVDs distributed to the children and their parents on the way in, were sponsored by "Sesame Street" and USO.

"It's important for these parents to see their kids so happy," said USO Tour Producer Betty Naylor.

Afterward, Heidi Paton said she liked Elmo's message.

"He told them he was so proud they were helping mom," she said.

"Cookie monster," said her daughter Bronwyn. "Cookie monster dance."