The Happy Time

7pm. Keene Public Library, 30 Winter Street, Keene, NH

Directed in 1952 by Richard Fleischer, The Happy Time depicts the story of a an eccentric, free-spirited extended French Canadian family living in the Calvinistic, sexually repressed environs of Ottawa in the 1920’s.  The Happy Time is based on the 1945 collection of semi-fictional sketches written by Robert Fontaine.  Fontaine was born in Illinois in 1908 to a Scots-Irish mother and a French-Canadian father; when he was very young, the family moved to Ottawa (but lived for a while in Springfield, Mass.).  The audience is invited to discuss the film’s depiction of French-Canadian culture after the film, led by Keene film historian Larry Benaquist.  One could of course ask:  what does The Happy Time have to do with local history in Cheshire County?, According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2000, 24.5% of New Hampshire residents were of French, or French Canadian ancestry, the largest ethnic group in the state; only Maine has a higher percentage, at 25%.  The Historical Society of Cheshire County’s film series seeks to communicate local history through film.