| Stanley Green, the Protein Man | |
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Oxford Street, 1977. |
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| Born | 22 February 1915 Harringay, London |
| Died | 4 December 1993 (aged 78) |
| Occupation | Human billboard |
| Parents | Richard and May Green |
Stanley Owen Green (22 February 1915 – 4 December 1993), known as the Protein Man, was a human billboard who became a well-known figure in London, England, during the latter half of the 20th century.[1]
For 25 years, Green patrolled Oxford Street in the West End, carrying a placard that advocated "Less Lust, By Less Protein: Meat Fish Bird; Egg Cheese; Peas Beans; Nuts. And Sitting," though the wording—and punctuation—changed slightly over the years. Arguing that protein made people lustful and aggressive, his solution was "protein wisdom," a low-protein diet for "better, kinder, happier people."[2] For a few pence, passers-by could purchase his 14-page pamphlet, Eight Passion Proteins with Care, which reportedly sold 87,000 copies over 20 years, its front cover observing, "This booklet would benefit more, if it were read occasionally."[3]
Green became one of London's much-loved eccentrics, though his campaign to suppress desire, as one commentator put it, was not invariably popular, leading as it did to two arrests for obstruction and the need to wear green overalls to protect himself from spit.[4] He nevertheless took great delight in his local fame. The Sunday Times interviewed him in 1985, and his "less passion, less protein" slogan was used by Red or Dead, the London fashion house.[5] When he died in 1993 at the age of 78, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Times published his obituary, and his pamphlets, placards, and letters were passed to the Museum of London.[6] David McKie writes that in 2006 Green achieved what no other human billboard has, an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.[1]
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Green was born in Harringay, north London, the youngest of four sons of Richard Green, a clerk for a bottle stopper manufacturer, and his wife, May. He attended Wood Green School before joining the Royal Navy in 1938, and fought in the Second World War until he left the Navy in September 1945.[2]
Philip Carter writes in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography that Green's time with the Navy affected him deeply. He was reportedly shocked by the sailors' obsession with sex, and by 1958 had come to believe that their libido had been dangerously heightened by the intake of too much protein.[2] "I was astonished when things were said quite openly—what a husband would say to his wife when home on leave," he told The Sunday Times "A Life in the Day" column in 1985. "I've always been a moral sort of person." He began to protect himself against erotic excess with a daily diet of porridge, home-made bread, steamed vegetables and pulses, and a pound of apples. "Passion can be a great torment," he told the newspaper.[7]
After the war, he took a job with the Fine Art Society, and it was while working there that he failed the entrance exam for the University of London in March 1946. He later worked for Selfridges, as well as the civil service, and as a storeman for Ealing Borough Council. In 1962, he had a job with the post office, then became a self-employed gardener, and seems to have earned his living that way until he started his full-time anti-protein campaign in 1968. He lived with his parents until they died—his father in 1966 and his mother in 1967—after which he was given a council flat in Haydock Green, Northolt, Middlesex.[2]
| External media | |
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| Images | |
| Green's press in the Gunnersbury Museum, Flickr | |
| His sandwich board in the Museum of London, Flickr | |
| Videos | |
| Footage of Green on Oxford Street, YouTube | |
He began his mission in June 1968, at the age of 53, initially in Harrow on Saturdays, becoming a full-time human billboard six months later on Oxford Street. He cycled there from Northolt with a sandwich board attached to the bicycle, a journey of 12 miles (19 km) that could take up to two hours, until he was given a free bus pass when he turned 65.[7]
He rose early, and after porridge for breakfast, made bread—which would rise while he was out on patrol, ready for his evening meal—and prepared his lunch on a Bunsen burner; this he ate at 2:30 in a "warm and secret place" near Oxford Street.[7] He walked up and down the street six days a week, reduced to four days from 1985 onwards, campaigning until 6:30 pm among the shoppers. Saturday evenings he would spend with the cinema crowds in Leicester Square.[2] He would to go to bed at 12:30 am, after saying a prayer. "Quite a good prayer, unselfish too," he told The Sunday Times. "It is a sort of acknowledgment of God, just in case there happens to be one."[7]
Peter Ackroyd wrote in London: The Biography that Green was for the most part ignored, becoming "a poignant symbol of the city's incuriosity and forgetfulness."[8] His advice to young women that they should eat a low-protein diet—because "you cannot deceive your groom that you are a virgin on your wedding night!"[9]—was not always appreciated, and led to his being arrested twice for public obstruction, once in 1980 and again in 1985.[2] "The injustice of it upsets me," he said, "because I'm doing such a good job." He took to wearing overalls to protect himself from spit, several times finding it on his hat after a day's work.[7]
Sundays were spent at home, not always quietly, with the printing press on which Eight Passion Proteins was produced. It was described by Waldemar Januszczak as worthy of the cartoonist Heath Robinson—who became known for his drawings of ancient contraptions[10]—and the racket it made on print days caused trouble between Green and his neighbours.[9]
Eight Passion Proteins went through 52 editions between 1973 and 1993, noted for its eccentric typography, including the apparently random capitalization of words.[11] Raising the price only slightly over the years, from 10 pence in 1980 to 12 pence 13 years later, Green sold 20 copies on weekdays and up to 50 on Saturdays, a total of 87,000 copies by February 1993.[2] The booklet identified the eight "passion-proteins" as meat, fish, birds, cheese, eggs, peas, beans, and nuts, arguing that "those who do not have to work hard with their limbs, and those who are inclined to sit about," will "store up their protein for passion," making retirement, for example, a period of increased passion and, therefore, marital discord. "We should not let passion defeat us," his pamphlet advised, "either alone or with a sexual friend, for discipline in the single years prepares us for the discipline of marriage." He singled out the BBC for particular criticism, accusing it of spreading "indiscretion, indiscipline, and indecency."[12]
Green was also unable to find a publisher for his only novel, Behind the Veil: More than Just a Tale, which Carter describes as a "colourful account of the danger of passion and the possibility of redemption." Two other manuscripts remain unpublished, a 67-page text called Passion and Protein, and a 392-page version of Eight Passion Proteins, rejected by Oxford University Press in 1971. Carter writes that Green's efforts on Oxford Street were augmented by a letter-writing campaign to the great and the good, and over the years Eight Passion Proteins made its way to five British prime ministers, the Prince of Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the director-general of the BBC, the editor of The Times, the British Medical Association, and Pope Paul VI.[2]
After his death, Green's letters, diaries, pamphlets, and placards were given to the Museum of London, and the other artefacts went to the Gunnersbury Park Museum.[2] His printing press was featured in Cornelia Parker's 1995 exhibition, "The Maybe," at the Serpentine Gallery, alongside Robert Maxwell's shoelaces, one of Winston Churchill's cigars, and Tilda Swinton in a glass box.[10] Over a decade later, he is still remembered by writers and bloggers, fondly for the most part, though not invariably so: artist Alun Rowlands' documentary fiction, 3 Communiqués (2007), portrays him as trawling the streets of London, "campaigning for the suppression of desire."[13]
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