History in a grand, historic theater anchoring downtown

The Hyart Theatre has been a place of excitement for years and years in Lovell featuring new things that many people may not know about.

There’s more to the Hyart than just its new credit card machine and peanut butter M&M’s. There’s the nostalgia of the place that has been bringing people back for many years, but also lots of new programs and future plans for the facility. 

There isn’t much to do in Lovell other than catch a movie or run to Maverik, but the teens in town love to go see their movie of choice, and the diehards love to go every week and see whatever movie is showing. It is certainly a different experience to walk into a movie theater than sitting on your couch to watch a film.

Hyart board member Mike Steenbakkers agreed when he said, “The industry hasn’t changed in years. I mean, they went digital, so we had a little better picture and sound, but there’s nothing super new. It’s just the experience of going and watching a movie. You get to sit in the theater and smell the popcorn, and it’s the historical feel of the Hyart keeping people coming back.”

After the Hyart closed down for nearly 12 years in the 1990s, the community rallied to open it back up in 2004. Later, in 2013, the community raised more than $125,000 to convert to digital sound and projection, allowing the theater to continue operating.

Because of that community support, the Hyart has been looking to see what it can do to help the community.

One thing they’ve been doing is the summer movie series for kids. Steenbakkers noted a new program the Hyart started, and the kids love it.

“We’ve got the summer program for the kids with the matinees, which is something I experienced when I was a kid; we had the same program once a week. You’d go to the movie and get to get in for cheap and watch an older movie. We’re doing that to try and give kids another something to do.”

One thing the Hyart board and staff are very proud of is being family oriented. The Hyart doesn’t play movies that are R rated and tries to stick to showings that are appropriate for all age groups.

Hyart manager Linda Mangus also shared a throwback movie program that the Hyart is bringing back.

“We’re going to continue to do what we call the throwback, where we pick one of those older movies and either get a sponsor for it or have the ticket prices be a couple dollars to get in,” she said. “We’re going to try and do that quarterly.”

To include the community in the throwback program, Mangus noted, “I asked on our Facebook page for suggestions from the community. For some of the suggestions, we’re not able to get those movies, but I thought if we can get a sponsor for one of the movies we could get, then it’s perfect. And now we have a list of some that the community members want.”

The next throwback showing is during Mustang Days. The Hyart is grateful for the sponsor of the movie “The Little Rascals” – Lorilyn Beck of Eagle Rock Financial.

Something the Hyart is looking to do in the future is coordinate with school schedules. They want to include more movie showings on days that kids are not in school. Their hope is to, again, give the kids more opportunities for entertainment. They would like to coordinate not only with Lovell schools but Rocky, as well. 

Mangus emphasized that, “Our goal is to not only to provide for our own community but maybe to be able to pull in Basin, Greybull, Burlington, Powell and Cody to come down to our theater that we love and provide a service for them.”