11 Tips For Housewives Trying To Be Sexy In The 1930s
Ladies, looking to spice things up in the bedroom? Checkout these 11 tips that Allan Gilbert swore by back in the 30s.
According to Gilbert, american women just didn’t have have good bedroom etiquette, so in 1937 he founded “Gilbert’s School of Undressing” where ladies could take courses teaching them how to gracefully strip for their husbands. These goofy photos were run in Life magazine and clearly illustrate the “do’s and don’ts” of a wives undressing routine.
Most of the tips are just downright funny and the accompanying photos are equally silly. Maybe these photos and tips were steamy back in the day, but now they’re mostly just good for a laugh.
1. “Attractive undressing technique is here being demonstrated by June St. Clair (right), of the Allen Gilbert School of Undressing.”
2. “She begins the day’s classroom exercise by neatly sliding her dress down over her hips and gracefully stepping out of it.”
3. “At the Allen Gilbert School for Undressing, Professor Connie Fonzlau begins her lecture on “Bedroom Don’ts” by demonstrating the worst possible method of disrobing.”
4. “No creases remain after Miss St. Clair (right) picks up her dress up, smoothes it out, places it on a chair which remains otherwise unoccupied. Such good bedroom manners are essential to married happiness once the honeymoon is over.”
5. “Nightgown technique is the high point in the Gilbert course. Here Miss St. Clair adroitly gets into her nightgown and drops her lingerie all in one magic motion.”
6. “A prime principle of artful undressing is to keep the hands graceful at all times. Here Miss Fonzlau clearly demonstrates what a knot some women make of their clothes.”
7. “Here June St. Clair, of the Gilbert Undressing School, shows a preview audience how to remove lingerie. Note the use of the side view, with right knee slightly crooked.”
8. “In this demonstration the lecturer is committing an unpardonable sin known as ‘working both sides at once’.”
9. “The business of taking off stockings, as here demonstrated by Miss June St. Clair is virtually an art in itself. Wives should use both hands to roll them down from the top slowly and neatly, thus avoiding all suspicion of slovenly unaesthetic wrinkles.”
10. “Two excellent purposes are served by rolling down stockings instead of merely pulling them off by the toes. Economically, a husband is pleased by the absence of runs, romantically, he is gratified by his wife’s graceful method of displaying her legs.”
11. “Too many American wives reveal bad bedroom manners by letting their hair down too soon, by allowing their stockings to wrinkle off and by sitting on discarded clothes.”
Via So Bad So Good, Vintage Everyday
