St. James Theatre

In Hunterville, a small town in the Rangitikei district of the North Island, the Town Hall opened in 1929.

Presumably it was intended for a variety of community uses. However, it evidently became a full-time cinema, the St. James Theatre, quite quickly as, in 1932, Beeban McKnight “took it over”.

Born Beeban Annadale McDonald in Dunedin (in the South Island) in 1897, she had enjoyed an extensive career in live entertainment before marrying John McKnight, a farmer, in 1923. After initially settling down to married life, she soon began to miss the excitement of the entertainment business. So, in 1932, without any previous experience with motion pictures, she took over the St. James Theatre.

It is believed she operated this cinema until around 1963. (As trading conditions got tougher, it is said that she would often travel to Wellington with a car-load of farm produce to bargain for a film contract!). But she was clearly respected in the business, as she was a was Dominion Councillor of the New Zealand Motion Picture Exhibitors' Association from at least 1942 until 1959, and her role in the industry was recognised when the Friends of the New Zealand Film Archive made her a life member in 1984. She died in 1996, just before her 99th birthday.

When Beeban departed it is believed that the cinema closed down and the Town Hall reverted to other uses, including, more recently, the town’s community library.

In 2007 Rangitikei District Council (for reasons that are not known) stopped undertaking any maintenance, and the hall deteriorated.

The library moved to the nearby Hunterville School in March 2015, but the community had already banded together. With voluntary labour, and access to community grants that the council apparently couldn’t apply for, a full renovation was carried out. The hall is now available for hire.

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