HE is an Oscar-winning movie legend. He was honoured with a BAFTA fellowship at the weekend. But John Barry's first public performance suggested nothing of the glory to come.

According to a source who was there, Mr Barry received a chilly reception that day back in the Fifties. His debut took place in the Rialto on Fishergate, as owned by Jack Prendergast, father of John (real name Barry Prendergast).

During the interval of a concert, Jack emerged on stage to ask the audience if they would mind being entertained by his son's band, the John Barry Seven.

"They came out and started playing," said the Diary's informant. "About half way through some people started throwing pennies at them to get them off."

Still, he's been coining it in ever since. As a composer, John has long been a millionaire, thanks to brilliant scores for Born Free, Dancing With Wolves, the Bond series and others.

JOHN'S BAFTA award sent George Appleby of Clifton on a trip down musical memory lane.

"The great John Barry has earned further merited recognition for himself and the city of York," he writes. "Another music maker of the same era in the city was Bert Keech, leader of the resident band at the De Grey Rooms in Exibition Square. He also represented his country in two sports: bowls and rugby union.

"On the bowling green, his considerable weight was very effective behind a firing shot aimed to break up an opponent's scoring shots at the head.

"Austin Rayner entertained cinema audiences at the Regal in Piccadilly, as he sat astride the huge Wurlitzer organ when it appeared from beneath the floor in the intervals."

Like many of his generation, Mr Appleby received a harmonica one childhood Christmas - "but never reached a level of skill which people would pay to listen to".

AS promised, more schoolyard games from the pen of Strensall's Dorothy Wootton. She kept herself busy playing whip a top, hoopla, marbles, hopscotch, hide and seek and oranges and lemons.

"Then there was leapfrog and we had 'fights' in pairs, with each contestant carrying a partner," Miss Wootton writes.

She adds that this last activity is "banned now, I believe. We never killed anyone and I can't recall any injuries."

ANIMAL activism spreads. First we had the dynamic newt duo and their Disasterthorpe protests. Now the Diary smells a rat.

Walter Rat, to be precise, who has written from his home address: The Riverbank, Tower Gardens, York.

He is "a very disgruntled rodent". The cause of his lack of gruntle? Human opposition to the 54-metre high Ferris Wheel, proposed for Tower Gardens.

In a letter to the council, Mr Rat expresses his delight at the idea which "will also show Blackpool a thing or two".

"May we suggest a few further events to develop the fairground theme and make it a real tourist wow?" he continues.

"Why not introduce some stocks for, say, four or five people.... you could charge the queuing tourists a fee for throwing discarded takeaway food collected in the streets from the night before. A great recycling trick!"

Updated: 08:56 Thursday, February 17, 2005