MILWAUKEE / Dec. 27, 2000--The Marcus Corporation MCS today announced that Lee A. Berthelsen, president of its Marcus Hotels and Resorts division, will retire on March 31, 2001. He will be succeeded by William J. Otto, who is currently senior vice president and chief operating officer of the division. Following his retirement, Berthelsen will continue as a consultant to the company.

"Since joining Marcus Hotels and Resorts in 1984, Lee has taken the division from three to ten hotels. More importantly, he has been instrumental in developing a reputation for quality in operations that is highly regarded in the industry, as well as by our customers," said Stephen H. Marcus, chairman and chief executive officer of The Marcus Corporation. "Bill Otto has been a partner with Lee in the success the division has achieved and we look forward to the continuing growth of Marcus Hotels and Resorts under his leadership."

Berthelsen has had a distinguished 47-year career in the lodging industry. He began his career at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York while a student at Princeton University, serving in a variety of positions. Upon graduation, he decided on a career in the hotel business and worked his way up through the Waldorf-Astoria organization to assistant manager. He was then chosen by Hilton Hotels to work with IBM to develop a computerized front office and back office system. He opened the first Loew's Hotel (the Summit Hotel in New York City) and was executive assistant manager of the Barclay Hotel in New York.

In 1963, he joined Holiday Inns, Inc., where he held several positions including director of development and assistant to the vice president of operations for all company-owned Holiday Inns worldwide, and corporate vice president and managing director of the company in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, opening 64 hotels in the region. Berthelsen also served as assistant to the chairman of the board of the company.

He joined Villacentres Ltd. in Calgary, Canada, in 1975 as vice president (later president) and chief operating officer, managing nine nursing homes and four hotels across Canada. He also founded and served as chairman of the Alberta Nursing Home Association.

Berthelsen joined Marcus Hotels and Resorts in 1984 as president and chief operating officer. Under his leadership, the division has grown to include six company-owned properties and four managed hotels. Highlights of his career with the company include the year-long centennial anniversary of the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, Wis., which was marked by an extensive restoration; the division's entry into the resort business with the purchase and renovation of the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa in Lake Geneva, Wis. and the Miramonte Resort in Indian Wells, Calif.; the division's entry into the timeshare business with the Marcus Vacation Club at the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa; and the recently completed major expansion of the Hilton Milwaukee City Center which includes the country's first indoor water park in an urban hotel. In addition, two major hotel projects are currently in progress; the renovation and restoration of the Hotel Phillips in Kansas City, Mo., which was purchased by the company in May 2000, and construction of the new Hilton Madison at Monona Terrace in Madison, Wis., which is scheduled to open in spring 2001.

The division also manages four properties for other owners: Beverly Garland's Holiday Inn in North Hollywood, Calif., the Crowne Plaza-Northstar in Minneapolis, Minn., and the Hotel Mead in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., and the Timber Ridge Lodge hotel condominium project in Lake Geneva, Wis., which is scheduled to open in July 2001.

Berthelsen is a past chairman of the Greater Milwaukee Hotel-Motel Association, the Greater Milwaukee Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Wisconsin Innkeepers Association and Preferred Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. He has also served on the boards of the East Town Association of Milwaukee and Metro Milwaukee, Inc.

Otto joined Marcus Hotels and Resorts in 1993 as senior vice president of operations and was promoted to senior vice president and chief operating officer in 1996. He has 22 years of experience in the lodging industry. He worked for the Stouffer Group of hotels for 15 years in positions of increasing responsibility including serving as general manager of the Stouffer Nashville hotel in Nashville, Tenn. He began his career with Hyatt Hotels in Chicago in 1978.

A leader in the Wisconsin hospitality industry, Otto is currently serving as chairman of the Governor's Council on Tourism and chairman of the Greater Milwaukee Convention & Visitors Bureau. He is past chairman of the Wisconsin Innkeepers Association and was a Wisconsin delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Travel and Tourism. Otto received a bachelor's degree in hotel and restaurant management from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and has earned the Certified Hotel Administrator designation from the American Hotel and Motel Association.

Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., The Marcus Corporation is comprised of four divisions: limited-service lodging, movie theatres, hotels/resorts and restaurants. The company currently operates or franchises 175 Baymont Inns & Suites in 30 states, and a total of seven Woodfield Suites in Illinois, Wisconsin, Colorado, Ohio and Texas; 482 movie screens in Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois and Minnesota, and one family entertainment center in Wisconsin; three hotels and a resort in Wisconsin, one hotel and a resort in California, one hotel in Minnesota and one hotel in Missouri; and 27 KFC and 3 KFC/Taco Bell 2-in-1 restaurants in Wisconsin. For more information, visit the company's web site at www.marcuscorp.com.