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 as they had been widely reported and talked about in the New York newspaper world McCay was a part of. "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" was McCay's longest running comic strip. He made over 300 more "Rarebit Fiend" episodes than he made of the more famous "Little Nemo". The first strip appeared on September 10, 1904, in the "New York Herald", a few months after the first appearance of McCay's "Little Sammy Sneeze". It was McCay's second successful newspaper strip, after "Sammy Sneeze" landed him a position on the cartooning staff of the "Herald". "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" ran