By Debbie Porteous of 
A total of eight crews of firefighters combated the blaze in the middle of the central Otago town, which destroyed the Roxburgh Town Hall, including its 128-year-old cinema. Photo: Supplied / Central Otago District Council
Fire put a sudden stop this week to what was potentially the longest continuous run of any cinema in the world.
The evidence was always a bit patchy - there were gaps in time multiple researchers just could not find evidence for, despite being certain the theatre had operated throughout them.
In the end an attempt at the Guinness World Record for longest continuous running cinema fell just seven months short, and the Roxburgh cinema missed out to the Washington Iowa State Cinema in the United States.
So the volunteer committee running the cinema simply then took to calling it the longest continuously running cinema in the Southern Hemisphere.
Certainly its start is well documented. An advertisement in the Mount Benger Mail at the time shows the first films - the Queen's Jubilee Procession, the Melbourne Cup and the Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight - were screened at the Roxburgh Athenaeum Hall (built in 1893) in 1897.
Shortly after, films were screening regularly, delivered by stagecoach to Roxburgh until 1912.
Early films shown at Roxburgh’s Athenaeum Hall arrived by stagecoach. Photo: Supplied
In 1928, it was recommended that a new town hall should replace the Athenaeum Hall and the council at the time decided to run the cinema to pay for the building.
A report in the Evening Star newspaper of 18 June, 1929, said consent was granted for a loan for the project at Roxburgh.
"The new hall and picture palace will be a very useful adjunct to the town, as the existing Town Hall is a wooden structure, and has served its purpose for very many years."
It noted D. G. Mowat was the appointed architect for the work.
The Athenaeum Hall was moved to the back of the section and in 1931 the Art Deco town hall building, which stood until Thursday, was opened.
The former Athenaeum Hall continued to be used as a dance hall at the back, with the cinema in the newer front building.
The Roxburgh Town Hall and cinema in recent times. Photo: Curtis Crawford / Otago Daily Times
The building, which lately contained a 258-seat theatre, a 14-seat theatre, a stage, a dining room, a dance hall, and a ticket shop and kiosk, was used for movie screenings, musicals, social functions, private and club events from the 1930s on.
In the 1970s the commercial operation of the cinema was handed over to the local community, with volunteers running it and preserving it.
In 1997, the 258-seat movie theatre underwent a $327,800 renovation which, among other features, included a terraced floor, the first Dolby stereo system in Central Otago and specially designed Teviot Tartan carpet throughout.
In 2015, a digital projector replaced the old 35mm film projector. In 2019, a 14-seater second theatre called 'The Attic' using seats from the former Moorhouse Ave cinema, demolished after the Christchurch earthquakes, was added.
The fire destroyed the Roxburgh Town Hall and cinema. Photo: Supplied / Central Otago District Council
Last year a retractable screen was installed and the theatre sound system upgraded.
Early last month, the ODT reported a fire in the building was stopped because a new monitored fire alarm system in the centre alerted Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the Roxburgh Volunteer Fire Brigade had a crew there in five minutes.
The story began, "History was preserved last week thanks to modern innovation."
Sadly innovation was not enough this week to halt the fire that put a stop to the movies.
