![Atop Empire State- in construction; Chrysler Bldg & [Daily] News in middle foreground. (1931)](http://cdn1.retronaut.co/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Atop-Empire-State-in-construction-Chrysler-Bldg-Daily-News-in-middle-foreground.-1931--199x123.jpg "Balancing on the Empire State, 1920s")
“Ex-Burlesque stripper, Professor June St. Clair, sexily undressing as a typical wife clumsily disrobes next to her during a demonstration on how wives should undress in front of their husbands’ in the bedroom, for a class at the Allen Gilbert School of Undressing.”
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All images by Peter Stackpole
Thank you to LIFE Archive
The Allen Gilbert School of Undressing? Odd- I’m completely self-taught.
Ridiculous and typically sexist
I am shocked and appalled to see such filth in a magazine with such a sterling reputation as Life. (Seriously, by the standards of 1937? some of those pics seem a tad questionable, such as the 2nd to last one where the stripper flashes her but from the side.)
I’m shocked and appalled to see that ANYONE would consider the human body ‘filth’.
Only in America is the overly fundamentalist, rigid, & puritanical view of the female form seen as something to be shameful and, when publicly exposed,even criminal.
Men expose their nipples all the time, with no public outcry. But when a woman publicly exposes herself, even to breastfeed her child, there’s always someone shouting about ‘indecency’.
With comments such as yours, is there any wonder there are so many women who have a negative image of themselves when they look in a mirror?
Seems like MaeW would profit from a remedial course at the Allen Gilbert School of Recognizing Internet Sarcasm.
she just didnt get it.
Wouldn’t that be the Gilbert Gottfried School of Recognizing Internet Sarcasm?
Interesting how the blonde is used for the correct way, and the brunet is used for the wrong way. Too bad Bettie page wasn’t old enough or she would have shown them both how it’s done.
Whenever my man wants me naked, he undresses me… slowly… kissing my soft skin as he uncovers each area… and… sometimes, I do a provocative table dance for him. This has been working rather well for us for nearly 20 years.
I do agree that many people have an overly rigid view of the body being exposed…but also…too many have no sense of modesty. There is a middle road, and some things simply should be private. Leave something to the imagination… which is, after all, the most receptive erogenous zone.
Lest you think this is a bit racy, harken back to the movies of the day, specifically ones like Golddiggers of ’33, or other so-called pre-code films.
This was before America took a turn to the more puritanical.
the florida family association is going to shame life retroactively
Why are people criticizing this? What is wrong with pleasing your husband? Why is it a problem to show a woman how to undress in a sensual manner? Why find fault in everything, from the human body to the color of the model´s hair?
They are just illustrating a harmless magazine article.
The girl is beautiful and she surely knows how to undress with class.
As my wife’s private Chippendale, I agree with Susanna… and I love the expression on the nice dark haired woman’s face 3rd from last frame, that would win me over! It is a fun post.
Cosmo would do an article like this and no one would bat an eye.
Taking stockings off: shoes are off.
After taking stockings off: shoes are back on.