By Jessie Salisbury | The Nashua Telegraph | April 13, 2008

Milford, NH
The Milford Drive-In Theater will be 50 years old this spring. By all reports, it's one of the last ones still operating New Hampshire, and the closest one in Massachusetts has also closed.

If the weather cooperates – and the snow is finally gone – the theater will open on Friday with a first-run movie.

"Since we don't know the opening date yet, we don't know the movie," owner Robert Scharmatt said. "We'll wait and see what shows up."

A group of local men, who prefer to remain anonymous, recently recalled the early days of the theater when they were teenagers.

Admission then, as now, was by the carload, and after putting in as many people as was legal, "We'd put a couple in the trunk," one said, noting, "I had a car with a big trunk. It would hold a couple of guys."

They also referred to "other activities in the back seat," but those reports were all "secondhand from friends."

Les Tallarico of Wilton remembered taking his young family to the theater in the early 1960s and recalled the rather tinny-sounding speakers, which were fastened in pairs to posts much like parking meters. The trick was to jockey the car into position so the speaker could be brought into the car and hooked over the window.

"And then you had to worry about the mosquitoes," he said. Tallarico recalled, as well, that someone occasionally drove off without returning the speaker to its post.

"Pulled it right off," he said.

The sound is much better now, received through the car's radio, one of the first outdoor theaters to make the change.

The Scharmett family purchased the theater in 1969 when it was being leased by the Fall River Theater Co. Over the years, they've completely renovated the park, installed a metal screen frame to replace the original wood, added a second floor to the concession stand for the projection room, upgraded all the equipment, refurbished the restrooms, added a new box office and marquee, and paved the entrance road.

The original building was a combination concession stand, projection room and restrooms, Scharmatt said. The second screen was added in 1984.

Scharmatt said he bought the business "because my wife's family was in the drive-in theater business since 1924. I always said if one became available, I'd buy it."

He did that when he saw an ad for the Milford theater.

Although the number of such theaters across the country is down to about 380, he said, "We are planning to keep this one for a while."

The Scharmatts – Robert and his two sons, Steven and Barry – also own and operate car-wash franchises in Fitchburg and Leominster, Mass., and Keene.

Scharmatt said the first drive-in theater was opened in New Jersey 75 years ago. At one time they were located all across the country. Most of them were single screen, he said.

They've been closed mainly because of the growing competition for people's attention, they are seasonal, and because of the cost of land.

"You need at least 15 acres," Scharmatt said. "They aren't building them anymore.

"We used to get a lot more attendance on Friday nights," he said, but now a lot of people watch sports. "And after Labor Day, there's football."

The theater generally closes the last weekend of September.

Admission is $20 per car, with up to six occupants.

The drive-in theater area is also used in the spring by elementary school students involved in the Atlantic Salmon Restoration Project. Officials say the gravel riverbank behind the screen is a "perfect place to release the tiny fish."

Originally published online here: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080413/STYLE/157024256