Deja vu: Emily revisits Ellen, Thanksgiving parade

November 18th, 2008 at 12:27pm Georgette Braun

Is it “Groundhog Day” again?

No, it just seems that Emily Bear, Rockford’s pint-sized piano prodigy, is redoing what she did a year ago around Thanksgiving time in a high-profile, Bill Murray kind of way.

First, Bear’s fourth appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” aired Monday. Bear’s second appearance was last November.

This time around, the 7-year-old talked about having a broken nose last summer and played a classical number she wrote to celebrate DeGeneres’ wedding, “Once Upon a Wish.” The song is one of 26 Emily has penned. Ellen told Emily: “You are a special, special girl. I love you. I do.” And so does everyone else, judging by the comments on the TV show’s Web site.

Emily also will have another role in this year’s McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade, the 75th annual, on State Street in Chicago.

Emily and Ronald McDonald will crank a large key to start an ice-skating princess inside the McCafe Wonderland Snow Globe. Her piece, “Christmas Bells,” will play as that parade entry winds through the route. Another piece she wrote, “Giving,” will play with another unit, the Ronald McDonald House Charities Care Mobile entry. Emily’s pieces will be heard by parade spectators who hear her crank the key, along with 1.5 million TV viewers, Julie Sestan, a spokeswoman for the parade said in an e-mail.

What’s Emily think about that? “I love it,” she said. “It makes me feel good. I like to touch people (with my music).”

Last year, Emily prerecorded and composed the parade’s opening number, “Waterlights.”

The parade airs from 8 to 11 a.m. Nov. 27 on WGN (Comcast 18).

Entry Filed under: Emily Bear