Unless otherwise noted all pictures and text are by and copyright 2004 Mike Strong


In my room at the Glencairn, an Irish guest house (bed & breakfast) on 55 Hanger Lane in North Ealing (west London) with English-made leather jacket, 1971.

Mike Strong

Photo story

Lust Buster

Lust Less with Lust Busters

London
August 1971
Oxford Circus

(Note: a "circus" is a traffic "round-a-bout" - a traffic circle. These are common.)

This is Stanley Owen Green (1915-1993) a.k.a. "Protein Man"
Link (new window) at Oxford DNB and Wikipedia

Every weekend this guy with the sign was a regular. He told me he had shown up, without fail for the previous 14 years with time out only for Christmas and one time when he was just too sick.

Note: The Oxford DNB article says he started his campaign in 1968, but he told me 14 years in 1971. So the article also notes "By about 1958 he claimed, through personal experience, to have equated this passion," in both men and women, with an excessive consumption of protein-rich foods." [note: the "passion" is lust] It is possible that I mis-understood him but the number 14 stuck with me. So either he was talking about 1958 or about two things, being present with his sign campaign since 1968 and formulating his protein theory of lust creation in 1958. The article states that he later tacked on "sitting," reasoning that too much sitting allowed protein to build up, leading to further lust.

From Oxford DNB article:"... his motivation was less spiritual (Green was a declared agnostic) than philanthropic and civic. Hence 'protein wisdom' was developed to moderate the effects of excessive passion for the common good and to make 'better, kinder, happier people' (l)etter to the US government printing office, 1981, Museum of London)."

From the lede of the wiki article: " ... One writer called him "the most famous non-famous person in London". According to Lynne Truss, Green became such a ubiquitous figure in and around Oxford Street in the West End that, like Zelig, he was "present in every black-and-white picture of London crowds that one has ever seen"."

He is remembered as part of the colorful street life in London and as "an Oxford Street character."

He (Stanley Green) was promoting less lust with his "Protein Wisdom."

He asked me whether I had tried less lust but I really thought I shouldn't close off my options. I was only 24 at the time. The other side of his sign says, "Less lust"

I love the hippie pair about to head down the tube station. They really make the shot for me. I suspect they were not converts. Years later, in late 1989, when I was massage therapist at the Kansas City club one of my regular clients had seen this picture. She and her husband then traveled to London. When she came back she left me a note that "your little man" was still on "duty."

I was re-assured to know that I was still being protected from lust by this one-person crusade over the years. That meant he had been on the job for some 32 years (in 1989).

Actually what I am most reassured about is that "eccentrics" are allowed to continue as part of the warp and woof and color and texture of a city. Here they get chased away.


Another shot of our intrepid campaigner for less lust for all of us, showing the other side of his sign (see close-ups of sign at right)
Here is the back side of the sign. Just in case you want that formula,
it is -
"Less Lust by less ..."

Meat
Fish
Poultry
Cheese
Egg
Peas
Beans
Lentils

And ... "Sitting