A 1928 mobile phone?

[George H. Smith]

This film clip from 1928 has gone viral. Below is the blurb from YouTube. I think we can rule out the time traveler nonsense, but this is an interesting puzzle.

This short film is about a piece of footage I (George Clarke) found behind the scenes in Charlie Chaplins film 'The Circus'. Attending the premiere at Manns 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.

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Ghs

[BaalChatzaf]

and how would such a phone communicate with anything Way Back Then?

Ba'al Chatzaf

[George H. Smith]

and how would such a phone communicate with anything Way Back Then?

Ba'al Chatzaf

Maybe there were other time travelers. Or may she was talking to space aliens who wanted to keep current on the last Chaplin film.

I love how people jump to fantastic conclusions based on the meager evidence like we find in this film clip.

Ghs

[Reidy]

Life in 1946 carried an article about a Swiss inventor's ipsiphone, which was a magnetic wire (they didn't have tape then) implementation of an answering machine. Maybe she's leaving him a message.

[Selene]

Folks:

I hate to approach this rationally, but has the gentleman on the video's question been answered yet?

Is that same scene on all of the DVD's, or, on any other DVD of that film other than the person on the video?

Adam

[PDS]

If the video is legit, I blame Nikola Tesla. He predicted in 1909(in a New York times article) that cell phones would be among us. He was a fan of Charlie Chan. He invented and protoyped a number of items that never really got off the ground, not because they didn't work, but because he moved on to other more interesting things. And, based on my reading of his short autobiography and a respected biography as well, I would not put it past him to have done this as a practical joke.

Either that, or, perhaps less likely, it's a time traveler who (1) found nothing better to do than serve as a movie extra in 1928, and (2) was accidentally caught on film checking his voicemails.

[Selene]

If the video is legit, I blame Nikola Tesla. He predicted in 1909(in a New York times article) that cell phones would be among us. He was a fan of Charlie Chan. He invented and protoyped a number of items that never really got off the ground, not because they didn't work, but because he moved on to other more interesting things. And, based on my reading of his short autobiography and a respected biography as well, I would not put it past him to have done this as a practical joke.

Either that, or, perhaps less likely, it's a time traveler who (1) found nothing better to do than serve as a movie extra in 1928, and (2) was accidentally caught on film checking his voicemails.

David:

Out of curiosity, do you have the DVD with this scene on it then?

Interesting about Tesla. He is one of my favorite historic persons. I always wanted to claim him as an Italian, but he was a Serbian. Clearly the person in the scene was checking in with the Wardenclyffe Tower:

Wardenclyffe Tower located in Shoreham, Long Island, New York. The 94 ft (29 m) by 94 ft (29 m) brick building was designed by architect Stanford White. The station, including the tower structure, was not completed due to financial difficulties.

David: I would like to know the title of the "respected biography" that you read as I want to read one about Tesla.

Thanks

Adam

[PDS]

If the video is legit, I blame Nikola Tesla. He predicted in 1909(in a New York times article) that cell phones would be among us. He was a fan of Charlie Chan. He invented and protoyped a number of items that never really got off the ground, not because they didn't work, but because he moved on to other more interesting things. And, based on my reading of his short autobiography and a respected biography as well, I would not put it past him to have done this as a practical joke.

Either that, or, perhaps less likely, it's a time traveler who (1) found nothing better to do than serve as a movie extra in 1928, and (2) was accidentally caught on film checking his voicemails.

David:

Out of curiosity, do you have the DVD with this scene on it then?

Interesting about Tesla. He is one of my favorite historic persons. I always wanted to claim him as an Italian, but he was a Serbian. Clearly the person in the scene was checking in with the Wardenclyffe Tower:

Wardenclyffe Tower located in Shoreham, Long Island, New York. The 94 ft (29 m) by 94 ft (29 m) brick building was designed by architect Stanford White. The station, including the tower structure, was not completed due to financial difficulties.

David: I would like to know the title of the "respected biography" that you read as I want to read one about Tesla.

Thanks

Adam

Tesla: Man out of Time, by Margeret Cheney. I recommend his autobiography first, if possible. No I don't have the DVD.

[PDS]

If the video is legit, I blame Nikola Tesla. He predicted in 1909(in a New York times article) that cell phones would be among us. He was a fan of Charlie Chan. He invented and protoyped a number of items that never really got off the ground, not because they didn't work, but because he moved on to other more interesting things. And, based on my reading of his short autobiography and a respected biography as well, I would not put it past him to have done this as a practical joke.

Either that, or, perhaps less likely, it's a time traveler who (1) found nothing better to do than serve as a movie extra in 1928, and (2) was accidentally caught on film checking his voicemails.

David:

Out of curiosity, do you have the DVD with this scene on it then?

Interesting about Tesla. He is one of my favorite historic persons. I always wanted to claim him as an Italian, but he was a Serbian. Clearly the person in the scene was checking in with the Wardenclyffe Tower:

Wardenclyffe Tower located in Shoreham, Long Island, New York. The 94 ft (29 m) by 94 ft (29 m) brick building was designed by architect Stanford White. The station, including the tower structure, was not completed due to financial difficulties.

David: I would like to know the title of the "respected biography" that you read as I want to read one about Tesla.

Thanks

Adam

Tesla: Man out of Time, by Margeret Cheney. I recommend his autobiography first, if possible. No I don't have the DVD.

Agreed re: Tesla, by the way: a true Randian hero, with a story not dissimilar to hers. Massive insights into psychology as well, believe it or not.

[sjw]

If the video is legit, I blame Nikola Tesla. He predicted in 1909(in a New York times article) that cell phones would be among us. He was a fan of Charlie Chan. He invented and protoyped a number of items that never really got off the ground, not because they didn't work, but because he moved on to other more interesting things. And, based on my reading of his short autobiography and a respected biography as well, I would not put it past him to have done this as a practical joke.

Either that, or, perhaps less likely, it's a time traveler who (1) found nothing better to do than serve as a movie extra in 1928, and (2) was accidentally caught on film checking his voicemails.

Hat tip for beating to this explanation. By the way, here is a reprint:

http://recombu.com/news/nikola-tesla-predicted-mobile-phones-in-1909_M11683.html

Shayne

[George H. Smith]

Folks:

I hate to approach this rationally, but has the gentleman on the video's question been answered yet?

Is that same scene on all of the DVD's, or, on any other DVD of that film other than the person on the video?

Adam

Near the end of the video, the guy is very specific about exactly where the clip is from. He even mentions the specific track on a DVD from the Charlie Chaplin DVD collection. I am certain that it is legit.

Btw, I don't think this is a scene from a Charlie Chaplin film. Rather, it is a film of the premier of a Chaplin movie at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. (I think you can see a poster in the background.) The woman with the "phone" was a passerby, not an extra in a movie. The clip is from an "extra" feature in the Charlie Chaplin DVD collection that is mentioned in the YouTube video. (I mention this because of a comment that someone else made.)

Ghs

[Reidy]

I don't see anything in her hand but its shadow, and I'm not sure she's talking. That wouldn't explain why she's holding her hand as she is or what she's smiling about. In pre-mobile days, people who bopped along the sidewalk smiling and talking on the phone to invisible interlocutors were called "weirdos." Hollywood, then as now, had more than its share.

Some say Tesla was a model for Galt (though I'm sceptical). Stanford White, who designed the Wardenclyffe Tower, was the archetypal Guy Francon / Ralston Holcombe society architect.

Edited October 28, 2010 by Reidy

[George H. Smith]

I don't see anything in her hand but its shadow, and I'm not sure she's talking. That wouldn't explain why she's holding her hand as she is or what she's smiling about. In pre-mobile days, people who bopped along the sidewalk smiling and talking on the phone to invisible interlocutors were called "weirdos." Hollywood, then as now, had more than its share.

Not a chance. Nothing "natural" could possibly explain this.

Ghs

[9thdoctor]

Alright, I'm going to confess, here on OL of all places. Yup, it was me, though I looked quite different back then:

And by the way, it was a portable transistor radio, not a freaking cell phone! Duh!! If you must know, I was singing along with some Cole Porter playing over the wireless, which would freak people out since I already knew all the words to this brand new song, but I was pretty oblivious to what people thought back in my earlier incarnations.

P.S. before someone rakes me over the coals, yes I know that transistor radios weren't invented yet. It's equally anachronistic, get it?

[sbeaulieu]

I love occurrences like these, similar to throwing chum in unknown waters to see what/whom will surface.

To answer Bob's statement, I read a response in the article that argued if a time-traveler existed, so too would technology that allowed them to communicate. It's a reasonable arguement.

What really strikes me as very smart was the "time traveller" walking in front of the black and white camera, wearing dark clothes to hide what he/she is doing. It's likely he/she knew that this would come out in the news some 82 later ;)

~ Shane

[Starbuckle]

You guys...this is obviously a hoax. The guy went back in time and handed the "butch lady" his iPhone and instructed her to walk across the path of the camera talking while Chaplin was filming. Of course it's not HER iPhone. And yet people are pretending there's a genuine mystery here.

The "maybe-she's-a-weirdo-just-talking-to-herself" explanation is even more of a stretch. All the socio-historical evidence is that weirdos did not emerge on the American scene until the late 1950s.

Edited October 29, 2010 by Starbuckle

[william.scherk]

You guys...this is obviously a hoax.

It is amusing how the inquiry played out -- a lesson in confirmation bias.

If one starts from the apparent anomaly of a person holding something to the ear, the question I think ought to have been 'what else could the lady be holding, if not a cell phone?'

The perhaps not obvious answer is 'a 1928 hearing aid.' Many commenters have put forth this idea, but it appears not to have occured to the mysterian who obsessed over the footage.

Here is a link to a page at Siemens' website, picturing a battery powered hearing aid on the market in 1924 . . .

[George H. Smith]

You guys...this is obviously a hoax.

It is amusing how the inquiry played out -- a lesson in confirmation bias.

If one starts from the apparent anomaly of a person holding something to the ear, the question I think ought to have been 'what else could the lady be holding, if not a cell phone?'

The perhaps not obvious answer is 'a 1928 hearing aid.' Many commenters have put forth this idea, but it appears not to have occured to the mysterian who obsessed over the footage.

Here is a link to a page at Siemens' website, picturing a battery powered hearing aid on the market in 1924 . . .

A hearing aid? Okay, that makes sense, but it must be the hearing aid of a time traveler.

[9thdoctor]

Has anyone considered that maybe he/she’s having a chat with a Lilliputian? A mini-me?

As to the hearing aid, what's to listen to when strolling down the sidewalk?

[DavidMcK]

Has anyone considered that maybe he/she’s having a chat with a Lilliputian? A mini-me?

As to the hearing aid, what's to listen to when strolling down the sidewalk?

Directions from the director perhaps?