Transcript
Unknown Speaker (Spanish Speaker) (0:04)
Para los beneficios del segro de desemplo de Oregon es gratis applicar sincostos nitarifas paroptener beneficios y los servicios de interpretacion estandis ponibles presentar su solicitud es facil yame al uno, ocho, siete, siete, tres, cuatro, cinco, tres, cuatro, ocho, cuatro uno, ocho, siete, siete, tres, cuatro, cinco, tres, cuatro, ocho, cuatro, pa.
Word Detective Host (possibly a historical figure or narrator) (0:30)
In the era when the girl who was up to the minute was expected to display an hourglass figure, a buxom soprano christened Helen Porter Mitchell was the toast of New York and every capital in Europe today. In a way, she still is. You will see what I mean in the course of this edition of Word Detective, prepared as an educational service of this station in cooperation with the makers of underwood typewriters. In 1893, just one year before the debut of the very first Underwood typewriter, music loving New Yorkers thronged to the Metropolitan Opera House for the American debut of the soprano who was already the darling of Europe. She came, she sang, she conquered. However, the particular incident which affects our dictionaries had to do not with a high C, but with low calories. As many soprano before and since, this noteworthy lady worried considerably about her weight for many months during her tenure as prima donna of London's Covent Garden, she engaged the services of a masseuse who came to our house in London every morning. But alas, it wasn't enough. She had to go on a strict diet too. And herein lies her entrance into our dictionaries. Today, after one Covent Garden triumphant, she went off to celebrate with a party of friends in the dining room of the Hotel Savoy. Exercising a great self control, she shook her head at present under glass and asked the waiter instead for a plain order of unbuttered toast. Somehow or other, the toast order was shunted off to an inexperienced assistant. When the prima donna received her snack, it was dry, thin and hard. But instead of reacting to this with a temper tantrum, the soprano not only quietly ate the toast, but asked for another order of it exactly the same. And now, I suspect you know how this lady of the opera fits into our dictionaries and in some case our diets. I'll type the expression out for you right now on my Underwood typewriter, the only typewriter with a golden touch. It was melba toast. After the turn of the century prima donna Nellie Melba. The singer was born Helen Porter Mitchell in Australia back in the 60s. But when she made her opera debut In Brussels in 1887, she adopted the stage name Melba after the city of Melbourne in Australia. As any lover of rich desserts knows, Madame Nelly was responsible for the naming not only of the diet dish of Milba toast, but also a high calorie concoction of vanilla ice cream, peaches and claret sauce, originated in by the great French chef Escoffier. In short, Peach Melba. All of which means the Ball of Melba was the only opera singer in history to be the toast of the town and also its dessert. Don't go away now. I'll be back in a moment.