From The Vault: Elisabeth and the Easter Bunny - Kenner Star 1996

    It was Easter, 1990.  Elisabeth, my youngest,  was about 9 months old, and was complaining that I never take her to see the Easter Bunny.  (Please note, in some previous columns I have tried to keep my children from embarrassment by not using their real names-- at their request.  I usually refer to them as  Megan and Jennifer. But I now have their permission to use their real names, and so I shall. Besides, I could never remember which one I was talking about).

    But I digress.
    So, I decided to take her to get her photo taken with the Easter Bunny at the  Mall. This is, of course, where children may go see Santa Claus at Christmas time, and, I think,  even a pumpkin at Thanksgiving.     
    Being the cheapskate that I am, I brought along my video camera so I would only have to pay for the still photo and not the video that the concession people would be happy to take for me.
    Although Elisabeth was eager to see the Easter Bunny up close, being only 9 months old she felt she had to pretend to be scared of this person in a costume with an extremely large head.
So about 30 seconds after I put her in the bunny’s lap, Elisabeth begins to whimper. Then the whimper turned into an open mouthed crying jag.  The bunny, God bless her, decided to comfort the screaming infant, and put her costumed head down to say something like “there, there”  to my child.
Much to the horror of the bunny, and the delight of everyone else, the huge bunny head fell off and went rolling toward the cameras.  As concerned as I was about my little girl, I kept the video camera rolling . This, I thought, is a  scene worthy of “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”
    As my mind finished saying that, the photographer, Don Daigrepont, leaned over to me and said, “Hey, Ed, you ought to send this in to ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’.”
    Not a bad idea.  But as it turned out, easier said than done.
    I got on the phone to the producers of “America’s Funniest etc..”, (henceforth referred to as “AMFHV”), and was told that in addition to sending the tape, I had to get written permission from the photographer, from the bunny, AND from the mall.  Well, the photographer was no problem, but by the time I got back with him it was well after Easter, and the part-time bunny was no where to be found. In addition to that, the mall was not thrilled about the prospect of being identified as the place where the Easter Bunny lost her head, and possibly being made fun of by Bob Saget on national TV.  The marketing director of the mall took my tape and promised to get a ruling from management.  It took several months, but finally, after I promised the mall would not be identified, and that Bob Saget would not make fun of it, the marketing people gave approval.  But we still needed the paw print  of the bunny.  Don eventually got hold of the bunny’s mother, and (using the carrot and stick approach) we got the okay. 
    Came the big night.  My daughter Elisabeth was going to be on national television, and possibly win $10,000 for the Clancy family.  The audience roared as my little girl screamed and the bunny’s head fell off. But we finished out of the money.  All I got was a lousy T-shirt with the AMFHV logo on it. But, hey, it was a start.  Who knew what the future would hold? 
    Well,  here it is seven years later [actually 20 now] and Elisabeth is not a big  TV star (although  she and her sister Alexandra have starred in a Mckenzie’s commercial).  But I am not giving up hope. This year I’m going to the mall again and see if I can get her to yank off Santa’s beard. [At age 21, I'll bet she could do it].