This is topic Oscar dinner illness in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000759
Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 03-09-2002, 10:41 PM:
Odd
Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 03-09-2002, 11:02 PM:
Hotel banquet and airline food served basically the same way....in staging racks which may sit for hours prior to serving ( with the exception of some hot items which are cooked to order or steamtables...which may get more sloppy with multiple functions.)....a tummy ache waiting to happen. 
Richard Fowler
TVP-Theatre & Video Products Inc. www.tvpmiami.com
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-10-2002, 08:45 AM:
Yea, I read that the other day and thought it was a bit strange. I guess its a good thing it was probably only a mild case of food poisioning and not Legionares Disease! Bet they say to bring your own sack lunches next year.
Richard, I never get a tummy ache.......I survived all the food in Vegas this year without any problem. My once a year trip there helps me keep up my "Sidney Greenstreet" profile!!
Mark @ GTS
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-10-2002, 09:21 AM:
During the P3 SMTPE Bob Pinkston of Dolby was suffering still the effects of that dinner
Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 03-10-2002, 11:39 AM:
Many moons ago we had a technical services contact with a major hotel chain for functions. The waiters knew what food to avoid and our staff alway went to the kitchen to see what was fresh. The best part-timers I had where busboys who would partially breakdown our hardware
on the days our staff was busy doing five or more functions.
ShoWest banquet meals ( boring ) we gave up long time ago. Time is better spent with breakfast and dinner meetings with vendors and clients which the only curse is mental indigestion if goals are not met........besides I have a spicy hot dog fetish which the tradeshow floor always satisfies. 
Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 03-10-2002, 11:45 AM:
Mark,
it was nice meeeting you...finally after all the e-mails and using your interlock hardware in Florida. You are "mini me" when it comes to Sidney Greenstreet....years ago I brought one of my techs to the show; at breakfast he managed to eat FIVE full plates at the Big Breakfast Buffet in the Ballys Hotel while I was struggling with one.
Richard Fowler
TVP-Theatre & Video Products Inc. www.tvpmiami.com
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-11-2002, 04:00 AM:
On my first day as an undergraduate student (many years ago) the University put on a 'welcome to new students' buffet to which virtually all the lecturers and first years turned up. The buffet consisted mainly of cheese sandwiches, which being totally allergic to all dairy fat (i.e. I cannot eat anything which contains milk, butter or cheese), I didn't touch. The sandwiches were infected with a very nasty form of food poisoning (a bug called Norwalk). The entire first week's classes were pretty much written off - the story made the national newspapers - while people were getting over the bug, and there was I, totally unaffected by it! 
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-13-2002, 10:10 AM:
I'm glad I won my Academy Technical Achievement Award last year, and not this year! 
Gordon is correct --- Bobby Pinkston was not looking too well at last Tuesday's SMPTE Projection Technology meeting. (He was feeling much better later in the week).------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion
Posted by Arthur Allen (Member # 969) on 03-13-2002, 11:40 AM:
On second thought, perhaps they shouldn't have ordered catering from the cast of "Fight Club." 
Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 03-13-2002, 02:55 PM:
They finally found out where it came from:"The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services has identified the illness that affected more than 250 people last week at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Sci-Tech Oscars at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Public health director Jonathan Fielding said Tuesday that a Norwalk-like virus, a class of virus that causes gastroenteritis, was somehow conveyed at Thursday's banquet attended by 550 guests. The Health Department has yet to isolate the exact source of the highly infectious agent, which is characterized by 'a short incubation period and a fairly short-lived illness.' Fielding said that Norwalk-like viruses are typically spread through food and/or serving dishes that have been contaminated by feces or vomit."
The story is from today's Hollywood Reporter (I checked the LA Times website but couldn't find anything).