Time Traveler spotted at the 1928 Chaplin film "The Circus"

[scotrace]

That woman is scratching.

 

[scotrace]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6a4T2tJaSU&feature=player_embedded#!

That is one seriously gabby son of a gun.

She is scratching. The final fading second her fingers are clearly moving away from her head. She's not holding anything.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I think she may have been a red spy!!!!

But Lizzie Maine is most likely right.

 

[Blackjack]

Time travel is possible ( I love this guy, he's always brilliantly amusing)
[video=youtube;X02WMNoHSm8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X02WMNoHSm8&feature=related[/video]

So if you agree that time travel in the future is possible, ( and were never going to know WHAT this chick/guy was doing anyway) yeah, she was talking on a cell phone in 1928 , why not...

 

[LizzieMaine]

But if she was talking on a cell phone in 1928, who was she talking *to*? There were no transmissions at all on cell phone frequencies in 1928 -- equipment capable of operation in that band wouldn't even exist until after WW2. So for someone to be using such a device, they would also have to have taken back cell towers, relays, and whole banks of routing gear along with someone else to talk to.

And with all that, she's probably mad because she got their answering machine.

 

[jamespowers]

But if she was talking on a cell phone in 1928, who was she talking *to*? There were no transmissions at all on cell phone frequencies in 1928 -- equipment capable of operation in that band wouldn't even exist until after WW2. So for someone to be using such a device, they would also have to have taken back cell towers, relays, and whole banks of routing gear along with someone else to talk to.

And with all that, she's probably mad because she got their answering machine.

She was talking to this guy saying "Can you hear me now?":

Watch her lips its obvious.
They have been doing testing for a looooongg time.

 

[Blackjack]

Lizzy, I think if they are smart enough to figure out how to travel back in time someday I think they'd figure out a way to communicate without cell towers. heres another interesting one, MAYBE...
It’s the short description for the photograph shown at the virtual Bralorne Pioneer Museum, from British Columbia, Canada. Did you notice anything out of place? Or perhaps, out of time?
As noted, the image is indeed available through the official website for Canada’s museums. It was part of the exhibit “Their Past Lives Here” from Bralorne-Pioneer, available to the public since 2004. It was put online since February this year, perhaps before that. And the peculiar “time traveller” image was only noted as such in the end of March.
Given the source, we would assume the photo is authentic, and correctly dated to c.1940. Indeed, an Error Level Analysis suggests the image was not digitally tampered with, or at least that if it was, the author was smart enough to normalize the error across the whole thing. It’s a good job, if it was a job. And again, given the source, we would assume it was not a job.

Then again it might just be a case of the guy dressed weird for the era...or?

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I am intrigued by the woman on the "cell phone." I think she does have something in her hand. I also think it's a WOMAN (women did manual labor in the house and on the farm in her time, not unsual for her to be "manly" as some of the comments say!)

In the extreme closeup it does appear as if she's smiling and talking. I'm going to go with testing her hearing aid, probably getting it ready for the orchestra at the Chaplin movie!! But it's fun to think she's on a cell phone

 

[flat-top]

Siemen's hearing aid from 1924:
http://hearing.siemens.com/en/10-about-us/01-our-history/milestones.jsp?page=3&year=1924
I think we have a winner!

 

[jamespowers]

Given the source, we would assume the photo is authentic, and correctly dated to c.1940. Indeed, an Error Level Analysis suggests the image was not digitally tampered with, or at least that if it was, the author was smart enough to normalize the error across the whole thing. It’s a good job, if it was a job. And again, given the source, we would assume it was not a job.

Then again it might just be a case of the guy dressed weird for the era...or?

What the heck is that guy wearing? Is it a sweater under a zippered jacket or what?
That looks really suspicious to me. He does indeed stick out like a sore thumb. So much so that it looks like he was inserted.

 

[Blackjack]

Siemen's hearing aid from 1924:
http://hearing.siemens.com/en/10-about-us/01-our-history/milestones.jsp?page=3&year=1924
I think we have a winner!

I'd say that a pretty reasonable answer, but we'll never know will we...

 

[Feraud]

Damn time travelling hipster!

Then again it might just be a case of the guy dressed weird for the era...or?

I would have been convinced if the woman in the youtube clip had been texting.
Talking on a cell phone is so 2000s..

 

[jamespowers]

Damn time travelling hipster!

lollollollollol

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's a high school or college sweater of some kind, with a felt logo stitched on the front -- they were very common and very popular with young men of the day. Also, those are safety glasses he's wearing, not hipster shades.

 

[jamespowers]

That's a high school or college sweater of some kind, with a felt logo stitched on the front -- they were very common and very popular with young men of the day. Also, those are safety glasses he's wearing, not hipster shades.

The safety glasses are what threw me off. I have a pair of them around here some place so I know what they are but the whole outfit is just strange for the picture. Everyone else is in their Sunday best with hats to boot and then there is this guy. It is just uncharacteristic. If one were a time traveler then they would likely want to blend in so this guy definitely isn't doing a good job there.
The whole thing just looks like a hoax. One that would be hilarious for the hoaxer as he managed to get it into a museum. Quite an accomplishment.

 

[LolitaHaze]

My guess is that it is a guy dressed as a woman for the shot and he is covering his face to hide that he is a guy. Just like stunt doubles always have their heads turned, tucked, or blocked.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My guess is that it is a guy dressed as a woman for the shot and he is covering his face to hide that he is a guy. Just like stunt doubles always have their heads turned, tucked, or blocked.

The more I look at this, the more that makes sense -- for one thing, her/his feet are huge by the standards of the time.

Thinking in terms of a man in drag, there's a very strong resemblance between this person and Henry Bergman, a member of Chaplin's entourage who frequently played drag roles in his films, usually as just such a hefty-looking matron. Bergman didn't appear in such a costume in The Circus, but maybe he came dressed this way for the purposes of some sort of gag at the premiere?

 

[Marla]

If I were to time travel to 1928 the last thing I would want to do there is call someone with my cell phone!

 

[LolitaHaze]

That is very possible. Plus when it comes to the "person" talking on the cell phone... if they are covering their face, they are probably talking to the director or whomever. It was a silent, and therefore no need to not talk. He was probably joking around with whomever was around or behind the camera.

 

[Blackjack]

Well you'd have to have some sort of device to get you back unless you planned to stay in that time for the rest of your life right? maybe she/he was giving GPS co-ordinances OR a communicating device with her own time describing what she was seeing...Ah, I love thinking that this could be real LOl ))) The best part of things like this are as much as we can't prove for sure she is a time traveler there isn't anyone that can give any evidence that she isn't. And as far as that other picture goes, to make it weirder there is a second picture in that group where he's from the side and it looks like a hoodie he's wearing.