Melba toast "Eighteen Day Reducing Diet" to Ethel Barrymore. It included Melba toast, which made the toast very popular at the time. Melba toast Melba toast is a dry, crisp and thinly sliced toast, often served with soup and salad or topped with either melted cheese or pâté. It is named after Dame Nellie Melba, the stage name of Australian opera singer Helen Porter Mitchell. Its name is thought to date from 1897, when the singer was very ill and it became a staple of her diet. The toast was created for her by chef and fan Auguste Escoffier, who also created
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend rarebit theme instead of tobacco, and McCay complied. The strip appeared in a "Herald" subsidiary, the "Evening Telegram", and the "Herald"s editor required McCay to use a pseudonym for the strip work to keep it separate from his other work. McCay signed "Rarebit Fiend" strips as "Silas", a name he borrowed from a neighborhood garbage cart driver. After switching to William Randolph Hearst's "New York American" newspaper in 1911, McCay dropped the "Silas" pseudonym and signed his work with his own name. McCay married in 1891, and the marriage was not a happy one. According to McCay biographer John Canemaker,