“This short film is about a piece of footage I (George Clarke) found behind the scenes in Charlie Chaplin’s film “The Circus”. Attending the premiere at Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, CA – the scene shows a large woman dressed in black with a hat hiding most of her face, with what can only be described as a mobile phone device – talking as she walks alone.
I have studied this film for over a year now – showing it to over 100 people and at a film festival, yet no-one can give any explanation as to what she is doing.
My only theory – as well as many others – is simple… a time traveler on a mobile phone. See for yourself and feel free to leave a comment on your own explanation or thoughts about it.
George – 20th October 2010″
…..
Thank you to Stevyn Colgan.
Great isn’t it? I was amazed when I first saw it.
I thought it would shock me more. I don’t mean to be mean, but it could be anything, like an old woman whith an itch on her ear talking to her husband, or someone with arthrytis trying to conceal her face, knowing she was being filmed. I do find it strange, and strangely similar to someone talking on a mobile phone, but seriously, it could be anything.
Without a signal, I would presume.
If it isn’t just an old lady scratching her ear and talking to herself (which it probably is), then it might be some kind of old fashioned hearing aid. Some kind of speaker that the person would hold up to their ear that magnifies sounds. Comparitively large hearing devices did exist in the twenties. She’d have hidden the wire to the battery in her clothes so it would fit invisibly into her hand so as to not draw attention to it.
She may just be holding the speaker up and talking out loud to test if the device is working? She’s smiling because it is?
Just holding his wig on? Yeah, could be anything. I don’t see an object in the hand at all. Nice bit of viral publicity for his movies I guess.
Looks to me something like: http://www.hearingaidmuseum.com/gallery/Carbon/WesternElectric/info/westelect34a.htm
Looks like one of these to me: http://www.hearingaidmuseum.com/gallery/Carbon/WesternElectric/info/westelect34a.htm
If it is a mobile phone, who is she talking to and on what network?
If it *is* a time traveller with a mobile phone, then who is she talking to and via which cellphone towers? Also, can you not see the contradiction in saying “It’s not an AM/FM radio because it’s 1928″ and then saying that it could be a cellphone?
Um, how are they using the mobile phone? It’s not as if they had a GSM infrastructure back then with all the mobile masts and whatnot. I suppose you could argue that if they’ve invented time travel they could quite easily be transmitting it back to their timemachine and thence back through the time vortex back to now, but seriously, Occam’s Razor and all that: either they have an itch or they’re hiding themselves from the camera.
Although… Look closely and you’ll see she isn’t holding anything. Front dark bit is shadow from her hand, back dark bit is her hair. Really – have a look.
If it’s a phone – who is she talking to? who’s providing the mobile network for her to be communicating?
I wouldn’t imagine she’d get too much reception back then, unless it’s some kind of space phone and she’s talking to the mothership.
If it *is* a mobile phone, how did she get a signal?……
Definitely covering her face against the filming.
More importantly, if it was a mobile phone, which wireless company was providing the service and where exactly was the cell tower that her phone was connecting to… and who was she talking to? Were there others in the same timezone that also had these communication devices that she was talking to? Maybe it was a communication device that she was linked to the control centre on the Time Machine HQ.
Poor old dear, I remember a time when this would not have seemed strange. Even today I’m not sure who are on mobile phones and who are talking to themselves.
If you take an Occam’s Razor approach to this, you simply have to ask… which is easiest…
a. Time travel
b. Video-editing
c. Making something out of nothing
It’s the oldest trick in the book to say the evidence exists over there, go look for yourself ( i.e the bible etc) knowing full well nobody will. You could have both easily acted, then added that person in.
It also wouldn’t be beyond the realm of fantasy for a video editor at the company that re-masters these DVDs to do the same thing.
It is still more likely to be nothing. The “phone” you talk about could easily be a shadow, a trick of the light, someone scratching their ear whilst coughing (it WAS the 1920s, people had itchy ears and coughs).
But most importantly, why would someone from our future in 1928 be using a retro 3G iPhone rather than an embedded ear-piece? That’d be crazy.
So, as you can see… there are many more massively more likely explanations and even your guess that it’s a phone has to be way off…
But still, I think it’s a time-traveller too
To all those people who say, “if she is using a mobile phone then who is providing the signal” … well …
… if there’s ever a way to go back in time, then the phone companies will also have the ability to go back in time and find a way of charging exorbitant “time-roaming” charges. Stands to reason.
If there’s ever a way to go back in time, the phone companies will find a way to go back in time too and apply “time-roaming” charges. Stands to reason.
Aside from the thought mentioned above about who she is phoning in an era with no networks (but then Doctor Who got around that one) I’m wondering why she would consciously attract so much attention. Remember when mobiles were new and how weird it was to hear people walking about apparently talking to themselves. Must have have been an urgent call!
Amazing! And notice how the man in front of her pulls out an iPod Touch from his breast pocket just before he walks off shot.
Yes, I’ve never seen an unusually dressed lady walking around talking to herself, ever.
Alas, I suspect her hand is empty & she’s shy of the filming. Regarding her being a chap in drag – she’d have to be a small chap. She looks little against that zebra, and also the chap who strolls out in front of her. I agree with SarahC – just as the dissolve kicks in, you can see that the black is the shadow of her hand.
Her heavy gait is far more likely to be due to 1928 feet that have grown up in unforgiving lady shoes & her butch look just the face of a Handsome Woman.
Still, it does look awesome.
(Plus – considering she’s able to travel through time, a less obvious communication device would probably not be out of the question)
Come on guys, it’s L.A. she is probably a he in drag and talking in to a spare shoe
http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/did/20thcent/index.htm
On second thoughts, I’m going with what I thought when I first saw this, which is the shadow of her hand. Some of the youtube comments suggest it might be a hearing-aid device, some of which looked a little like that in 1928, but with fresh eyes again, it’s clearly the shadow of her hand. Done.
I think her knuckles are bent because she has arthritis and she’s holding her hand to her head while fretting about something out loud, possibly because she has a headache or she’s been out all day and is tired. It’s more than possible that it’s her husband in front of her and she’s talking to him.
However, what is also clear is that this guy created the entire thing for shameless self promotion. If he didn’t go on and on about his films at the beginning I would have actually considered this sincere.
Gosh, yes, I think it’s FAR more likely that humanity has, at some point in the future, invented time travel, set a drag queen back to the era of Chaplin and had them walk in front of a camera whilst chatting on an early 21st century mobile phone.
The other explanations, that it’s just a shadow or a hearing aid or a woman scratching her ear are WAY too far-fetched for my liking.
Thanks for taking over 8 minutes to explain this, too, instead of the 2 minutes a lesser film-maker would have employed. Brevity is over-rated!
I’m pretty sure she’s just scratching her head. In the last couple of milliseconds, a couple of her fingers are extended and under her hat. As for the talking, I think maybe she’s just cursing at the discomfort.
“Dag-nabbit! These young whippersnappers and their new-fangled motion picture cameras! Lemme alone!”
I feel kind of sorry for this production guy…her seems a mite foolish.
I was all ready to launch into a sceptical exposition, when I saw that many had already done so. It’s good to see that fellow Retronauts are also critical thinkers
For the hard-of-patience such as myself, the footage is between 2’42″ and 2’48″ (and repeated several times thereafter.) The rest of the clip is superfluous waffle.
Just ask Homeland Security for a transcript. She’s dressed in black, clearly with terrorist intent, likely on the watch list.
She’s shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun. Look at the shadow she’s casting, it’s clearly a very bright and sunlit day and the sun is low on the horizon (her shadow is quite long).
The only odd thing would be that her fingers seem rather more curled (as if they were holding something) instead of what you might expect as the more normal action of extending one’s fingers more fully when doing a sun-shielding action. But if you mime it yourself – and imagine a sun or other light source pointed directly at your left ear – you’ll see that if you hold your hand straight up, you don’t shield as much of your eyes as if you curl your fingers slightly to provide more lateral coverage. The only way to get more coverage would be to stick your elbow out awkwardly and hold your hand with the thumb pointing upwards instead of to the side.
Why is she doing this and not the man in front of her? Because the man knows where he’s going and she isn’t sure, or else she’s looking for someone she’s supposed to meet there. This is evidenced by the fact that she’s walking more hesitantly, and even comes to a complete halt as she scans around.
This explains the poor AT&T network quality! Bandwidth is being siphoned off into the past and funneled into the future to allow the time traveler’s to communicate with their own time!
“Hello Dear. I’ve made it! I’m going to Chaplin’s premiere of course, what’s more interesting to do back in ’28?”
I have seen the footage a good few times and I can not see any sign of a phone – though I can understand why you would think she would be holding one, as we have learnt to observe this posture and hand shape. THERE IS NO PHONE, you can not see any device, and it becomes clear the hand is empty when after looking to the camera her thumb moves inward towards the palm. She is covering her face from the sun, while singing or talking to herself – not an uncommon practice.
SO, She is a woman.
She is not holding anything.
And she is singing while walking outside a Circus.
So you can now relax and go about your live.
I paused it and went frame by frame at one point. At about 5.07-5.10 as the shot dissolves it looks like sh opens her hand a little more an I’m sure if she was holding something she would have dropped it.
There is clearly nothing in her hand. However I do believe it is a time traveler sending a nod out to the future. Why else would she stop & stand so obviously in center frame.
http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/did/win_20th/703163p.htm
French Electric “Camera”
This aid, manufactured by the French Electric Co., around 1930, is housed in an interesting camera-style case. This is an unusual example of an electrical concealed hearing device.
“I have studied this film for over a year now – showing it to over 100 people and at a film festival, yet no-one can give any explanation as to what she is doing.”
You mean, out of those 100 people, and the attendees at a film festival, no one could come up with the possibility that she was shielding her eyes from the sun / scratching her face / holding on to her hat / keeping her wig from flying off ?
If none of a hundred friends could explain this to you, you need new friends.
“What? Yes I know I’m dressed like a woman you idiot! For the love of MIKE! No I haven’t found area 51! This damn phone doesn’t work for crap! Get me outta here these heels are killing me!”
I’m surprised no-one has yet got the underlying flaw — which is that things cannot exist in an era in which they did not exist. More to the point, any putative time travel could only be forward from its point of invention, otherwise the time travel device and time traveller would instantly vanish in the manner of matter:anti-matter reactions.
Secondarily, assuming it *is* a cell phone, it would be one from circa 2002 based on how the hand holding “it” is configured. Therefore, such time travel would need to have been invented at some point prior to 2002 or so.
Do you think we might have heard about that by now?
Alternate explanations are not needed, for the underlying assumptions are physically impossible. And even if one could possibly travel backwards in time, because the time travel machine was finally developped in 2319 it is very odd that the traveller is using a 300-year-old piece of kludge.
It is as though despite our GPS units of today we chose to use an astrolabe for navigation.
I always knew these “creative types” were developmentally challenged when it comes to logic, reason, and basic science, but this bloke demonstrates the problem astoundingly well.
Can you hear me now?
Poor old lady is obviously sheilding herself from the harsh mid-day sun (and i’m sure also those obtrusively glaring production lights), possibly self-consciously clasping her moldy outdated clara bow wig or mabel normand hat, and probably (more than likely) mumbling quips of distain to her caplunking husband/ man friend galloping several feet in front of her (slow down winston – where’s the fire). She’s obviously distraught over the whole cheesey carnival atmosphere of a pompous hollywood premeire and is clearly (look at dissolve) holding nada, conversing even more nada to (you guessed it) nada-one. But oh wouldn’t it be wonderful, the ability to transgress back in time to witness first hand the magic anf wonder of events pass! I guess the old adage is correct – we see what we want to see. But of course its an illusion – ask marty mcfly, professor brown and captain kirk – space time continuum and prime directive stuff! Still would be a wonderful what if!
I’m going to make a point of never watching this guys movies. This viral campaign has been ridiculous!
Ha! I just saw that this has made it to CNN!
What a bunch of kill joys! Come on people, It’s as easy as pissin yerself to poke holes in this scenario. You are all so eager to show how intelligent you are by pointing out the obvious. Of course there were no cell towers in 1928. The creative thinker tries to imagine a way this is possible. Perhaps the woman is using a hand held phone instead of an ear piece because in the future the support infrastructure is all contained in the users phone. Consider the public health policy ramifications, If this woman is from the future, the food police have failed! A fat woman from the future? The future is indeed bright, Bacon is still legal!
This is not a time traveler. No possible way. There would be no reception because there are. no. towers. Simple. The woman looks as though she is holding onto her hat and talking to herself. I do that. All the time.
Sorry but the ‘black bit’ is just shadow from her gloved hand. However, the time-travelling lady is definitely holding something curved or circular in her left hand. It’s concealed and not necessarily bigger than a DVD or make-up mirror! Look at the way her fingers are angled. My guess is that she’s applying make-up. That’s a pity! I prefer to think she’s phoning home!
ok maybe she was fixing her wig?
how can nobody see what she is got
Some short of autism… hand near head and talks to herself…
FFS, the BBC has picked up this “story”! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11646933
Hats of to the fella for getting himself this much publicity for free, over nothing.
I copied and uploaded to Flickr a still from the film about 5mins 10secs in. You can just make out her hand and it looks to me that her fingers are spread too wide for her to be holding anything.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7413733@N05/5125849524/
I think it’s Captain Kirk in disguise from one of the Star Trek episodes when they go back in time usually to somewhere in LA .. he’s communicating with his handset to Capt Scott to beam him up cos he’s just been rumbled..
Back, and to the left.
Back, and to the left.
That’s impossible. A machine could never fly like a bird!
I wish I could time travel back and watch my parents conceive me. Just kidding, actually I would call them on the phone and interrupt them so I would never have been born…no wait, then how could I go back in time if I had done that…Im so confused…
THINK OF STAR TREK WHEN THEY LAND ON A PLANET COMS ITS A GUY TALKIN TO A MOTHERSHIP
Another great find!
I was amazed at the lady’s shoes and gait. Could be someone in drag. However we have to bear in mind this is Hollywood and Los Angeles where anything has been possible for decades.
The cynic in me poo-poos yet another viral marketing campaign, yet the innocent abroad in me hopes it is more interesting!
Keep up the good work!
I wonder what company she is with….if I ever find myself in the 1920′s, I would like to be able to use my phone…
To be honest, the lady looks like she is just thinking. And bullshit she was talking in a device, can’t see anything but shadow there. Just looks like she has her fingers pressed against her temple, and possibly thinking aloud
How about this 1928 radio: http://vintageradio.me.uk/magazinecvr/bright.htm ?
I thought it was an iPhone 4 but on further viewing I think its a black 3GS. So obviously he/she comes from a narrow time period 2009-10 basically. I think they set up a micro network for the group of travellers. Hope she doesn’t accidentally bump into her own grandmother and set up an awful time paradox!
I just saw someone walking down our road without a mobile phone. No iPod either. That means they must’ve time travelled from the past. Wow.
I have to say, there’s a far more impressive clip on the same Charlie Chaplin DVD showing a fascinating experiment made by the camera crew. Apparently, in order to speed up delivery of film to europe, they actually shot the whole film on two camera’s side by side. Then one smart-alec realised they could do 3D!
It’s not on youtube yet, but it’s rather amusing watching two guys waving their hands infront of two cameras whilst making the first 3D movie..
Just a few issues. If she’s talking on the phone, she must be talking to someone else- which would mean two time travelers who each have a cell. But the main issue is that there are no satellites circling the earth in that year and of course there are no cell towers. So it would seem impossible- there must be another explanation.
it was a radio!
So many negative and sarcastic comments! Thank you very much for this truly interesting footage.
It is an ear-horn and rather common for the period, as hearing aids were not yet available. It appears to be a portable model, as opposed to the larger ones, more commonly used at home. She is listening to someone and talking. The ear-horn would allow for amplification of sound into her “good ear”.
LOL this could be a time traveller and most of these replies are asking about the network!! dont worry about HOW this person and a mobile came to be in 1928 ..the potential that people could time travel is far more of an issue than what network
If it is a mobile phone, who would she be talking to in 1928? Unless they have the technology, presumably the same technology that allows time travel, to send a phone signal forward though time. Also just before the scene fades out the woman adjusts her fingers in a position that would be difficult to hold a phone with and moves her hand up to adjust her hat. It’s during the fade but it’s quite clear.
She’s obviously using Verizon…
She is holding the eight minutes, thirty one seconds of watching this video that none of us are getting back.
Heck, it’s one of the crew from the Enterprise using a communicator hence no cell towers needed, on one of their trips back into time.
We won’t know..
I do not think it is a timetraveler, not because of the lack of reception, which should’t be a problem for the techlevel of timetravelers but for the fact that if we found out we would change the course of their history substantially and therefor he/she wouldn’t be there…
xcuse the spelling
Everyone keeps making the point of “what cellphone network is she on?”. SO Assuming that this person has the ability to transport her physical self through time: Voice communication through time would have most likely been perfected well before transporting a whole human body.
Just saying, the network issue isn’t what makes this a crazy assertion. That’s a small mental hurdle.
she is my aunt babs, time traveller and thief
Ian Freeman
October 25, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Definitely covering her face against the filming.
(Same obvious words)
Mystery solved! Well, the following explanation with link seems extremely plausible. Around the late 1920′s something called ‘The Midget Radio For Policemen’ was introduced I believe in the United States. Some years later policemen in England and elsewhere started using it. There’s a photo of the device being used in the link, a page from a vintage ‘Popular Mechanics’ magazine. It’s very similar to a cell phone and you would be talking into it-to other cops. And the “woman” in the film footage? An undercover cop would be a good guess. Here’s the link to the magazine page.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/06/02/midget-radio-for-policemen-is-carried-in-pocket
If you pause it at 3:36 you can clearly see she doesn’t actually have anything in her hand. All her fingers open out to the point that if she was holding anything like a midget radio it would have dropped out of her hand. I think she was she fidgeting with her hat as she walked along.
On a less related note, do you realise there has been 86 exchanges of opinions on this subject and not one of you has opted for the tried and tested tirade of abuse that defines a ‘comments’ section on the internet. Call yourself internet users…shame on you with your ‘rational’ dicussions, shame on you all.
could be a hearing device or a small radio?
Just when you all thought this matter was all settled and done with… look at what I came across only the other day – this 1924 cartoon by the German artist Karl Arnold ( http://tinyurl.com/6zjwks7 ). My German isn’t really up to it, so I can’t work out what the guy’s saying, but the title seems to translate as “Berlin: Wireless Telephony.”
{With due credit to Oscar Grillo, on whose blog I first found the cartoon: oscartoons.blogspot.com ).
what a fun site this is. All the funny, logical, sarcastic comments. I’m new to this site, introduced by my son. Technologically disadvantaged and dilberately so, I charge forth, enjoying the marvels of the internet more each day.
As for the person on the phone…Have you ever walked down the streets of San Diego? Lots of folks seem to be talking to you until they walk right past. Cell phone? Schizophrenia? HINT: If they walk into a soup kitchen, they probably weren’t talking on the phone.
Love the comments from retards who say there is no network to speak on….as if someone who could time travel might not have advanced communication devices….
Could she be (who has suspiciously male hands) curling her hand around so that she can hear herself quietly singing? She sees the camera and it looks like she is a little embarrassed…
It is a time traveler. But it is not a woman. It is a man. I know because I have met the traveler. He is the only time traveler to solve the divergent timelines dilemia. Unfortunately he won’t share his knowledge… yet.
You’re right!! She´s aunt Emily!! That day we were having lunch at home and suddenly realiced our mum’s sister took our cell phone by mistake. Now we know where she went that evening. We are still waiting her back… probably she ran out of battery.
sadly not a phone, but an art deco looking hearing device
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23909185@N06/5108888518/
It’s a silent movie. Co-ordinating with verbal instruction whilst attempting to conceal lip movement with his/her left hand. Looking at the movie clip it seems that at the final moment the fingers of the hand are relaxed a little giving the impression that there isn’t in fact anything in the hand at all.
Exactly WHO would she be calling with such technology? By the time we would have travel into the past (and why would that be), I doubt we’d be holding cell phones, and that you could call someone with it. Do you guys think they had cellphone towers in 1928?
Wouldn’t a time traveller like to prevent from appearing on film in order to not leave any traces?
I mean, today with everybody filming everything with a mobile phone, that might actually be quite difficult. But Chaplin’s camera man must have been a quite easy thing to spot back then? Why is Mr./Mrs. time traveller walking right through the picture then?
It’s not a time traveler. Look carefully at the woman’s height. It’s Zelig.
People who fall for this bunk should be ashamed of themselves.
My god so much hype on this one. The Irish man who discovered this one has gone into hiding with embarassment.
If he had done a little research he would have come up with what it is which is an old hearing aid. They were made from a carbon fibre and yes part of them were about the size of a mobile phone I believe the part that held the battery!
its obvious..its maxwell smart incognito (he often dressed up) making a rendezvous with agent 96, on his shoephone!!?..probably walked onto the wrong set..
but its a clever-devious way to get publicity for your own minor works as a producer/director/scammer??
They’re a couple.
She natters incessantly.
He’s fed up and misogynist.
He gave her ear a clout and sped up.
Now he’s reaching for a smoke.
She’s matching his gait and delivering choice words.
When they duck into the alley they’ll transport back to the present.
I believe it could in fact be a time traveler, I mean it is insane but plausible. Or she could simply be a woman who is not all there in the head and is maybe talking to herself putting her hand close to her face as shown.
Defo a phone. Defo time traveller.
“I’m in the past… no, in the past… the past! Hello?”
He/She is so far from the future (like Dr. Who future) who doesn’t need “1920″ technology for cell reception but her “mobile” device is beyond the time and space continuum. There, I solved it.
are you the same (CIA);) guy who warned us of Saddam’s WMD? I have no doubt that your critical analysis got this just as right dude you are good
imagined conversation: “dude, yeah I morphed pretty good but the shoes suck…no really I’m in the ’1920′s dude’ and…what…dude…you’re brea..king up… f*ck yeah, I’m gonna exploit the sh*t outta this period. Vote For Women!
I’d be curious to see some research on what walkie-talkie type radios looked like in those days. I think they were much larger from things I’ve seen on old war movies, and maybe not even in existence in 1920, but I also work in production, and know it isn’t an odd thing to stage even the most trivial of shots. I’m wondering if perhaps this is a member of the crew. Notice how he/she stops in the frame rather than passing through–perhaps as though somebody on the other end of his/her “walkie-talkie” (who would be watching through the lens maybe?) is telling him/her to stop so he/she is in the frame.
It’s a long shot, but not as long as time travel. I’m completely fascinated by the idea of time travel and love the possibility, but to me, if production crews communicated with handheld devices in those days like they do today, I’d say it was just the production team staging the shot.
maybe it was mobilephone because the company motorola was founded in 1928, but it doesen’t prove anything.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Consumers/Corporate/US-EN/_Documents/Motorola_History_Timeline.pdf&embedded=true&chrome=true
The woman does look like a man – she walks like a man, has male-looking features (what you can see of them), and big hands. Coming at this from a film production POV, it’s possible that the director wanted an old woman to walk across the scene, but they didn’t have any old woman extras (or they had a selection of male and female costumes, but too few male costumes), so they dressed up a short man. So the actor walks with his hand up to his face in the manner of a woman (and to our eye who’s worried and talking to herself (and to our eye like someone carrying a mobile phone), but the hand position is mainly an excuse to cover the face so you can’t see that the woman character is played by a man.
to me, it appears to be a slightly disturbed individual talking to his/her self. the cell phone looks more like the collar of a coat under the overcoat being held up to cover the individual’s face.
fun stuff though
Even if it were a time traveler, there were no cell towers
in 1928, so she couldn’t be talking to anyone on the other end.
There are endless possibilities as to what she could be doing. She could have been rehearsing a play with an object in her hand to simulate a phone. She could have been doing anything, it’s impossible to say, but I don’t think even the FBI could identify whatever she is holding , if anything is a cell phone.
To everybody saying that she’s just scratching her ear – in the zoomed version you can clearly see a black object in her hand, and I don’t think they sold large black ear scratchers in Chaplin’s time
“Can you hear me now? Good.”
It could be an alien. One with a physiology slightly different to humans, explaining her awkwark walk. If we were more advanced and had to scout a more primitive planet, we’d be disguised as a harmless and often ignored part of their population. I know it’s farfetched, but it’s possible.
I think if you look at the guy in front of her… carefully, you’ll see he’s about to pull an iphone from his pocket, that’s whos she’s talking to!
What’s so strange about using a mobile phone???! Don’t understand…
Doctor Who companion, duh.
For those who keep asking “Who is she talking to and on what network?” IF she is a time traveler, don’t you think that they are past worrying about networks? I’m pretty confident that once we can send a person through the space time continuum, that we can figure out how to communicate through the same space and time.
Solved! I showed it to my 90 year old mother and she confirmed that that was her mother’s American cousin once-removed who suffered from tinnitus and was given to walking the streets with her black, flat purse pressed up against her ear for relief. She also liked to talk to herself, since her husband (walking in front) rarely listened to her.
let me steal this joke by joe rogan and adapt it a tad,
she is bin laden, because even in the past allah has blessed her with 5 bars!
In the future you will not need transmitter towers, they will travel via… oh I can’t tell you that it would spoil it all.
Its almost as if shes saying to a friend I’m in front of the camera can you see me now!
Tis bizzare…
I can understand it to be a hearing box device , however who is she speaking to, towards the end of the footage. I have seen on the net a similar device from around the time for the hard of hearing and deaf, but it still remains , who is she talking with …..her self ?
Okay. So, I’ve read most of the comments here, stating that time travelers are untrue and there’s no way an old lady c
Sorry, my laptop has a soul of it’s own and he live in his own goddamn computer life. Anyway, as I was saying, that most of you would think that time traveling is impossible. You ALL are just afraid to face from things that is out of norm because you don’t want anything to disrupt your ordinary homo sapiens lives. Let’s face it, if you can believe in your Gods and Goddess or God, then why can’t you believe in time traveling. It’s highly amusing to see many of you here debating and prostrating, if I allow, quite vehemently that there’s no such thing as time travelers, that she was fixing a wig, shielding her eyes from the sun, arranging her hearing device etc. I’m not saying that she’s talking someone on the phone or anything but I find it strange that she is kind of overdressed for the occasion especially in this hot weather. And the weird way of how she walks, there’s a stagger in it and I’m beginning to think that she may be a man in disguise for all I know. But still…. disguise for what? Hmm. As we know, there really ALOT of things out here in the world that we still could not figure out. So maybe, time travelers does exist. Somehow. Or I could be wrong. *shrugs* We’ll know about it when we know it.
Oops. I mean protesting not protrasting. Lol.
You guys are all foobing idiots
Crazy person talking to his wallet.
I saw this when I was a kid (circa 1960). Cell phones didn’t exist for me, so my view of this woman was that she was putting pressure on a toothache.
Although dentistry had advanced considerably, artifacts contemporaneous with the Chaplin film abounded in my life. Cartoonists, for example, invariably signaled a character with a toothache with a white cloth tied to the top of their head and crossing down below the jaw.
The cell phone theory is funnier, though.
Of course it’s a mobile ‘phone! They already had them way back in 1922, as this just-rediscovered Pathe film proves:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILiLaRXHUr0&feature=feedu
There is nothing in her hand. As you can see at the very tail end, she moves her fingers toward the hat brim, opening her hand. The man in front of her was her husband, he walked on to the ticket office/front door, while she adjusts her hair or hat. If it was windy on Hollywood Blvd that day (wearing a coat, it must have been chilly!), she was holding her hat or hair, or shading her eyes from the glare of that sun!
She was talking to her husband of many years, as wives are wont to do. Even if he’s out of earshot, well, he has convenient hearing when he’s closer, it never stopped her before!
There’s nothing there. Interesting hand placement. 30 or 40 years ago, no one would have thought anything of it.
The man looks familiar. Not D.W. Griffith, but possibly involved with the film in some way.
So the phone signal is traveling through time too? A really advanced phone would still need to be held like it is today? And that someone with such a device would openly use it walking about the streets? Think about it. Stop watching and think about it. No only does your assertion sound pretty unfeasible, you have footage of someone walking along with their hand up to their face. Never before mobile phones were invented did anybody ever do that…
Occams razor teaches us to always assume the simplest explanation is the right one. Time travel doesn’t seem to be the simplest. Here are the inconsistancies in the theory as I see them. Cell phones, as we know them need towers and a network. Assuming they can build time machines, maybe they don’t need towers anymore, but if that’s the case, wouldn’t they have a more discrete design for their cell phones? We have those already. Also, nobody on the street seems to think her behaviour is odd. Which they certainly would if she was on a phone. Simplest solution? crazy lady with an itchy ear.
I think it’s some sort of compress. Maybe ice wrapped up in something? It seems like she’s pressed it to her cheekbone. She could have a toothache and is talking to the man in front of her?
There are a lot of people saying “oh it can’t be a mobile phone because of no signals/cell phone towers/networks/etc…”
How very naive of you; have none of you ever watched Doctor Who?! (New!Who, not Classic Who) Series 1; the Doctor takes Roses phone and uses his Sonic Screwdriver to fiddle with the phone to make it able to contact anyone in Roses’ “real” timeline, from any point in space or time.
Yes, Doctor Who is fiction, but it’s an idea that’s been put out there, and if time travel ever becomes reality, then who’s to say that the technology to do the afore mentioned mobile phone tweaking isn’t going to be possible, too?
It´s her Blackberry….
Martinius… you are the funniest thing on Earth!! lol.. Legend !!
They are fading two pieces of video into one, if you look in the top right hand corner of the footage you will see a circular charlie Chaplin sign and it will dissappear along with the lady. Also the gentlemen on the right appear out of nowhere almost as if a dissolve transition has been used to merge the two clips together. As much as I would love to think this was a time traveller it is merely an early filming transition!