Time Traveller Caught on 1928 Charlie Chaplin Film?

*sigh*

Why stop with the theory of time traveler?

Maybe it's a representative from an alien culture where everyone looks like Ernest Borgnine?
Maybe it's God, making an appearance before the NY times could print his obituary, thinking "Wouldn't it be funny if...?
Maybe Tesla actually invented the I-phone in 1906 and this is the proof that Steve Jobs stole the tech?
Maybe it's a ghost that got confused about the whole time/space thing and is just trying to order a pizza?
Maybe what we're seeing is a highly advanced robot sent back in time to kill the great grandparents of Sarah Conner...

The maybe game is fun - but truth tends to be found in the most simple of explanations.

~Heff

I just thought of another thing. If she was a 'time traveler', why would she risk blowing her cover by walking on a cell phone down a street in Hollywood, in 1928?

I mean, really. The cops or other people would have definitely asked "Hey what is lady talking into"? Or "Hey lady, what is that thing?".

But she strolls around like it's normal. I think a 'time traveler' or someone with a device ahead of it's time would try and keep it a secret? Especially in a still 'primitive' date like 1928.

Or maybe she was there to cash in on the crash of 1929????? ZOMG!!!!!!!!!!

Holy #, that's definitely a cell phone. A possible explanation is that Charlie was truly more visionary than we thought and he thought that cell phones would be developed sometime in the future.

They had phones back then....ya know?

It would be quite possible she was kinda nutty and mimicking being on the phone.

Do people also know that many women back then had jobs as operators? Thousands of operators per city.

I think it's a crazy lady imagining a phone call.

ok...at first this freaked me out.

Then, easy explanation.

But, I'd like to point out that:

If you have the technology to TRAVEL BACK IN TIME...

..then you have the technology to TALK TO PEOPLE IN OTHER PERIODS OF TIME.

lol..

Anyway...

She/He is an actor rehearsing for a part that includes a telephone. Think about it for a minute, and think of the context.

Originally posted by Hefficide
The maybe game is fun - but truth tends to be found in the most simple of explanations.

Yes and I have also heard that the "truth is stranger than fiction" or something to that effect. Not sure what it means though

From the way the person carries themselves with the phone and talking looks very typical of a 21st cell phone user, I got a good chuckle indeed!
Whether this is a time-traveler or not I am in question however, simply because it would prove many of us have missed the time traveling chapter in conspiracy theory, lest this be a time traveler from the far future.

One things for sure, no conclusions are going to be made, I decide to keep an open mind and think to myself there is just that much I have yet to learn.

Originally posted by Prove_It_NOW
She looks 'manly' because that's how old ladies looked back then. These were European Immigrants still new here, even in Hollywood. Women had a different build back then.

Do a search for Mary Pickford. There are plenty of examples of women that were good looking even by today's standards. Granted, the type of clothing worn back then did not really "enhance" the natural beauty of the general women's figure.

But what we have here is ugly, not just 1920s ugly...we're talking century spanning ugly. It's like Ernest Borgnine in drag

EDIT: Ok...missed "old" in your post. So, maybe.

What a silly 12 page thread on something ridiculous.

She is using a wireless phone.. although there are no towers, no plans, and probably no one else with one? This is a MOVIE SET. This isn't an accidental capture on film of someone on a phone - every single person in that scene is an actor or an extra. And near the end, you can see her scratching her head as if confused - she looks like she has her hand there because she is confused and lost, and she moves her fingers like she is scratching her head, and there is no phone or anything else there.

Some folks really REALLY want to believe certain things.. wow.

it's grey alien dressed as a gay banker

definitively a cell phone look closely at the hand and look at the part were she /he /it
looks into the glass and you get both views . I dunno why there's a working cellphone in the past but there you have it!

Actor/Actress rehearsing a part. Nothing more.

It looks to me like a black handkerchief she has clutched in her hand. She might of been holding it next to her ear due to an ear ache/infection as to shelter it from the wind as any slight breeze would be painful. This is somewhat reminiscent of Kennedy's limo driver William Greer who was thought to have shot the president. Just a trick of the light as it was later proved.

Originally posted by fleabit
What a silly 12 page thread on something ridiculous.

Yes ridiculous enough for you to even comment on. Join the club. We all did.

reply to post by HughJorgan


Of course there were beautiful women back then. But the AVERAGE woman back then was NOT like they are today.

Look at her shape. She has that immigrant Russian, German barrel butt shape that 'granny' had in those days.

I mean seriously, a time traveler? CMOOoooooon

First of all, this wasn't shot on a movie set- a lot of people seem to be getting confused about that. Someone was shooting the activity outside the premiere of the movie, and that footage was later included in the special features of a DVD release of the film.

So it is understandable that they are not acting appropriately for a movie set- which they are not on. It also means that this can't be a male actor playing a female role.

Second, the same device that can transport you through time could conceivably do the same for a signal you might wish to transmit back home.

Possibilities for the hand position and mouth movement, in my mind, in order of likelihood:

1. The individual attempted to shield their face from the camera, and when they believed they were out of frame, they turned to the camera man to scold him for filming in public.

2. The person has some simple reason to touch their jaw while moving it- such as attempting to adjust false teeth without reaching into their mouth in public, trying to dislodge a bit of food in the back of the cheek, etc etc etc.

3. This is a time traveler, who wants to be able to prove that time travel is possible but does not want everyone to know. They believed they could accomplish this by appearing in a relatively obscure piece of footage that would not be too widely seen or carefully studied, but which would be readily available in the future for anyone who had been told what to look for.

4. This is a time traveler who did not have access to a method of hands-free communication or recording that could be concealed, and they got caught with their guard down.

5. This is a non-time traveling extra terrestrial visitor who dressed as a strange looking fat woman to avoid being approached by humans (or just because they weren't very good at fitting in) and was not expecting to find cameras in public on Earth, and therefore believed they could walk down the street talking into their hand without it ever coming to anything more than a passer by asking if they are crazy.

well i have a neibour how always walks around his front yard talking to himself but he always has his hand over his mouth thats the first thing that came to me this person in the film has some sort of mental issue i would say look its defanatly a bloke that likes to wear wimons clothsan talk to himself, loopy loopy loopy, lol

I think you haven't thought of the simplest explanation and the first thing I thought when I watched it. It just looks like the lady knew there was a film crew filming and she was ashamed to be caught on tape so she tried to hide her face by covering it with her hand. Yes she might have been holding some object but that doesn't mean it was a cellphone.

You can even notice how at the end she kinda stops and looks at the direction of the camera and she kinda smiles at it and even scratches her forehead.

reply to post by zazzafrazz


Considering that this is a " Silent Film " , it looks to me like Nothing more than A Pantomimed Gesture of either " Dismay " , " Horror " , or Nervousness . Is there anyone here who is Aware of the " Plot Line " of this particular Scene in this Film , or any " Silent Board Dialogue " that accompanies it ? Was the " Alledged " Cellphone Lady " one of the Primary Characters in this Film or just an " Extra " ?

The biggest problem I have with this is actually the size of the cell phone. I think it would be fair to say that in the next 10 years mobile communication will be different from what it is today. If he/she is using a cell phone why would it look like an android? That is unless we are going to be making some serious steps towards time travel in the next few years.

I look at it two ways.

Either it is a time traveler talking about how they've always wanted to be in a Chaplin film and are no telling their friends in the future to look at the film for him/her.

Or this person is improvising a part in a film, is an actor practicing, or is just acting foolishly with a prop.

Hmmm...