In 1937, a burlesque show director started "The School of Undressing" for wives, to teach them how to properly disrobe.
LIFE magazine did a semi-instructional spread on the class before its debut, remarking, "Such good bedroom manners are essential to married happiness once the honeymoon is over."
Director Allen Gilbert told LIFE that the Manhattan-based school was intended "to make going to bed appear a thing of charm and pleasure rather than a routine chore."
Gilbert claimed 48 women signed up for the six-class course, and each paid $30. That's equivalent to about $500 now.
The "professors" teaching the class were two burlesque dancers: June St. Clair (left), who demonstrated how a wife should undress, and Connie Fonzalu (right), who demonstrated how a wife should not.
"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."
Gilbert told LIFE that he felt "many a marriage ends in divorce court because the wife grows sloppy and careless in the bedroom."
The reaction to the LIFE article on the class was mixed, Mashable reported. Some men responded by saying they had never thought of watching their wives change for bed. Others were puzzled over the possibility of getting into PJs in "one magic motion."
"Sirs — What about their husbands?" a reader named Robert Evans Person of Chicago responded to the LIFE spread. "What of the back-scratching; the toe-picking; the sock-dangling; the pants-off first male? We must have shocking bedroom manners."
A feminist ahead of his time.
"In this demonstration the lecturer is committing an unpardonable sin known as 'working both sides at once.'"
Time speculated that the whole class was in fact just a marketing stunt for Gilbert's newest show, "Sex Rears Its Ugly Head." BuzzFeed speculates that it was a way for LIFE to draw in more male readers.
Good thing clothes nowadays are quick and easy to remove, so it's not even an issue.
(H/T Mashable)