Posted by Michelle McCue in General News | 8 comments
Mysterious Actor In Chaplin’s THE CIRCUS
This piece first appeared yesterday over on Vulture – “Did a Time Traveler Crash Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 Movie Premiere?” By today, the 8 minute video had spread like wildfire all over the internet…I even had people emailing me whether I had seen it or not.
So from the horse’s mouth:
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.
Clarke goes on to say:
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.
So WAMG readers, what do you say? Is this the real deal? Or some kinda hoax?
Do copies of the film that this man has had no access to match with it or is the woman with the “cell phone” not there? I think that is key. If she is in all the copies, then it is simply our experience misleading us to believe she is holding a cell phone when she is actually doing something ordinary that we cannot know from this distance in time and place.
Good Point!
This is being discussed all over the place. I’m going along with those that say it’s a hearing aid. Either that or she’s just a crazy lady talking to herself.
There wouldn’t be any cell towers in 1928, so even if a time traveller did go back, his/her cellphone wouldn’t work.
http://www.hearingaidmuseum.com/gallery/Carbon/WesternElectric/info/westelect34a.htm
Actually, if you watch very closely at 3:35-3:37, she moves her hand in such a way as to suggest there is nothing in her hand.
If it was really a time traveller, then it is likely a walkie-talkie device not a cell phone.
.) This really answered my problem, thank you!