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Source: Sharon Lauer-Fancher
My grandfather, Otto Jay Lauer, was the manager-owner of the Manistee Lyric Theatre until his death about 1925, while crossing Lake Michigan to Millwaukee, on the steamer Nevada of the Pere Marquette Lines. He was a silent partner with Fitzpatrick and McElroy and oversaw the northern circuit which included Traverse City, Cadillac and Ludington. He married Anna Schamberg in Chicago in the fall of 1916 and in fact met her, while managing their Benton Harbor theatre earlier. Wanting to raise a family in a small town, Otto chose to manage the northern Michigan circuit.