UGC-de Brouckere

Lionel on February 16, 2020 at 3:29 pm

I’ve seen the following films in this cinema: The Jewel of the Nile, The Goonies, Fatal Attraction, Far and Away (in 70mm) and 1492. Now to clarify a few points:

The black and white picture posted by CSWalczak shows the original auditorium before it was multiplexed in the seventies. It had two balconies. When they made a multiplex, they split the original auditorium in two levels, by extending the first balcony forward. The former first balcony is now used as stalls for what is left of the original auditorium, while the former stalls “downstairs” were used for the additional new screens. In the modified auditorium, at the beginning, the new screen (in cinemascope format) was smaller than the current floating screen seen on the most recent pictures but it had screen masking and curtains.

In the 1992 renovation, they got rid of the masking and curtains and benefitted from the free space on the sides to install a much bigger screen which is the current screen. There is still available space on the sides for masking and curtains but they can’t do this because passageway must remain to get to the exit doors behind the screens (and it was no longer in any circuit’s policy to have tabs anyway). When it reopened in 1992, I visited the booth with the chief projectionist. All booths had the new Dolby CP65 processor and used Altec Lansing amplifiers and speakers. Although it was not a THX installation, the main auditorium used the THX-certified Altec A10 speaker systems with active bi-amplification behind the screen. Also, the main auditorium plus one smaller one (for move-overs) had been equipped for 70mm. If I remember correctly, they used a DP70 projector in the big one and a DP75 in the small one.

The original name Eldorado was superseded by the new name UGC De Brouckère when taken over by the French circuit UGC which typically uses the company name plus location name as big circuits do, but aficionados usually refer to the main auditorium as the Grand Eldorado in order to distinct it from the rest.

Buffer on January 27, 2014 at 12:27 pm

The restoration and expansion in 1992 was supervised by architect Alberto Cattani

CSWalczak on June 5, 2012 at 10:42 pm

This B&W photo shows the auditorium before the installation of the large screen in front of the proscenium.

HowardBHaas on June 25, 2008 at 7:37 pm

Fantastic recent photo by Roloff of auditorium facing huge movie screen:
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HowardBHaas on December 2, 2007 at 4:51 pm

Thanks to Ken Roe for amending the Intro to better describe the interior changes. My notes from 2001 indicate a balcony closed, but open when the cinema was full, in the ornate historic Eldorado auditorium. So, the current Eldorado probably consists of the 2 former balconies with people sitting in the former 1st balcony, and sometimes in the upper balcony.

I estimated the screen at 45 feet feet wide. No curtain was used.
I saw an Art Deco sunburst pattern on the ceiling.
A really fun place to see a movie!

HowardBHaas on August 19, 2007 at 9:56 pm

Exterior photos:
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caption to this exterior photo states apparently where former Scala cinema was:
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Main auditorium photos:
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/otagi/192059760/

In 2001, I saw a movie in the main historic auditorium, noting that it had 650 seats. If the original auditorium was 3000 seats, then is something missing? The original orchestra level or a balcony level?

And, what did the original lobby look like?

The theater was built 1933.

Roloff on April 7, 2004 at 2:09 pm

It was indeed the Eldorado, but somehow when I enlisted this, only the current name came through.