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Chaplin’s Time Traveler?

Grailer Nostradamus sends this cool video for all you anomaly-lovers out there: an alleged time traveler caught on film in Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 movie The Circus:

Just let me bask in the Fortean glow for a few minutes before asking rational questions like “what cell-phone tower/network would they be using?”. One of the top-rated comments over at YouTube suggests that the device is an early 20th century hearing-aid (such as this one), which seems the more likely explanation…although not sure why she would be chatting to herself like that. Also might be worth checking that it’s not a modern addition, given that the person presenting the video is getting some pretty good publicity from this vid.

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  1. Pardon me, do you have the time?
    Aside from the narrator being just a little long-winded in his detailing the video… and what he believes is a communication device in the hand of what appears to be a female subject in period clothing, I do have to admit that the video is quite captivating.

    Understanding the time and the technology of that day, precludes almost any sort of such a device. The date of 1928 is a full 4 years before the Western Electric 1932 model suggested above.

    But without debating what technology was and was not available then, let’s think about the technology that would be in the hands of a genuine visitor from the future.

    Studying the frames from the video, it is pretty apparent that the article in the subject’s hand is not even as small as some cell phones of our own time. In fact, the subject’s index and middle fingers appear to extend around the upper half of whatever it is, making it somewhat larger than the palm of their hand.

    Next step, let’s assume for just one moment that this time traveler comes not just from a future point in reference to 1928, but from our own future as well. If such a journey was made from a point in our future, shouldn’t we naturally assume that they would be equipped with technology superior to our own and that the march of miniaturization had carried on even further from where it is at today?

    At best, the device in the old woman’s hand would hearken to those earlier generation cell phones like you see Mulder and Scully using in the 2nd and 3rd seasons of the X-Files… circa 1994 or so.

    It is also a bit reminiscent of those bulky Klingon communicators as seen in Star Trek 4, the Voyage Home and the translator Kirk had pinned to his head while on trial on the Klingon home-world in Star Trek 6, The Undiscovered Country.

    In comparison, the US Secret Service today has a number of much smaller devices that mimic wrist watches and wireless hearing aides.

    And then, wouldn’t a genuine time traveler try to be as inconspicuous as possible and carry is little technology as they could to prevent it contaminating the time line should it fall into the hands of the date?

    But lastly, none of this is to try and debunk the video or the theory. It is truly a mystery and they are one very special spice of life!

    Rather than guess at it, why not find a real time traveler and ask them?

    One way you might proceed would be to slip a note into a time capsule or corner stone that will be sealed for several centuries. In the note, state that YOU are a time traveler stranded in the early 21st century and in need of rescue. Leave instructions for the future to meet you at any street corner of you choice, sometime a few days after you plant the message (to prevent those nasty temporal paradoxes) and wait to see who shows up.

    Who knows, you may have bought yourself a ticket to tomorrow.

    ADDENDUM:

    Perhaps the woman was a time traveler stranded in 1928, making an effort to send a message to the future for rescue?

  2. Time Traveller?
    This sequence, newsreel footage from the premier of the Chaplin film The Circus, was not shot in a studio, but recorded on the streets and surrounding areas. I took a long hard look at this before submitting the link, having decided it was worth sharing with fellow Grailers.

    In my heart I know there must be a rational explanation, but darned if I know what it is. And it doesn’t help that the ‘woman’ in the sequence could be a man in drag…

    I now wonder if there are other such incidents hidden away in old film or photographs and having seen this example, will watch old newsreel with a different perspective from now on.

    By the way, have you all seen this one?
    http://forgetomori.com/2010/fortean/time-traveler-caught-in-museum-photo/

    1. Dressed to the 9s
      One of the (other) things I’ve noticed from repeated viewings is that the woman(?) in question is dressed in clothing more fitting the latter 19th/earlier 20th centuries…. say, like around the time of the Titanic sinking. I have an old 1900 Sears catalog reprint and she could have shopped for that outfit right from those pages!

      I’m glad you did share this with everyone and I hope it inspires some dialog/debate.

  3. iPareidolia
    a clear case of mistaking a vintage apparatus with one of our modern contraptions.

    Micah Hanks also writes about this at the Gralien Report.

    PS: And some filmmaker this Clarke character must be, when he’s only able to show this “enigmatic” clip by filming his TV set!

    1. Yes, no… maybe
      I’m not convinced that it is a vintage hearing device… unless she is intent on hearing her own voice or enjoying the feedback.

      I’m not ruling it out entirely… obviously that cannot be done. But, the manner in which she is holding it would indicate something different.

      I ripped the vid from You Tube and sectioned the individual images to try and get a better idea but… as you say, copying it from a TV screen leaves a lot open to doubt.

      I’d like to see the video as a stand alone to examine on its own merits.

    2. Hey Mom…
      Just for the heck of it, I asked my own 87 year old mother what she thought… and her reply was that there were once things called ‘repeaters’.

      According to her, repeaters were about the size of a soft drink can that contained a spring-loaded recording cylinder (think Edison) that recorded sound for up to maybe 10-15 seconds and that it would then play the sound back through a mechanical amplifier for those hard of hearing.

      I took my laptp to her with the video and asked her if she could identify what the person in question was doing and she replied… ‘walking down the street.’ LOL!

      Oh well.

      1. Did any of you see that photo
        Did any of you see that photo that went around the net a few months ago or maybe at the beginning of this year? It was called the time traveller and supposed to have been taken circa 1940 in Canada I think. It was a guy in his late 20’s early 30’s looking more modern than the people around him. There was also a guy in the photo who looked just like Walter Skinner from The X-Files. I’m sorry I don’t have a link but did anyone here see it?

        Check out this picture of Malmö, Sweden. It’s taken from the city’s tallest building Turning Torso. The reason for that will soon be apparent. Click on the full screen mode to the right. Then you can zoom in and out, pan to the right or the left. Notice the amazing clarity even if you zoom in as much as you can. This is a function I would love to have when it comes to the time traveler. Taking several stills of him/her and then zoom in. The question is if it is possible to keep the clarity when it comes to more than 80 year old stuff though.

        http://kvp.expressen.se/utsikt

    1. They discussed it on C2C
      They discussed it on C2C yesterday. The guest claimed to have seen a photo from the late 1830’s with a man he could swear had a cd in his hand. I would love to see that photo.

  4. Time traveling hearing aids
    William Gibson tweeted a link with photos of a circa-1905 Acousticon hearing aid. It could very well be the answer. Although when I first saw the Chaplin footage, I thought the lady was just being shy and covering her face with her purse.

    I took my vintage Sony cassette walkman for a spin yesterday, I hope someone took a photo of that…

  5. Time Traveler
    Going with the theory of time travel, if that tech was possible, wouldn’t communication tech equally advanced be possible allowing the traveler to talk to his own time? Just saying.

  6. Trick NOT Treat
    Our son is in a film program at college.. he took ONE look at the film.. busted out laughing.. and said, “I have a program that can do that too!”. Sorry to bust your bubble. But, he was right.. at the end.. you can see right through the “man”. That’s the proof.. that this fellow.. is looking to make a viral video. Has ANYONE actually got their OWN copy of the DVD’s and looked for the exact footage?? The maker of this video is banking on the gullibility of its lazy viewers.

    A GREAT Halloween TRICK for HIM!

    1. The old college try…
      The video itself is not really in question… at least, not in any place that I’ve seen this topic discussed. Also, just because you can play filmmaker with a $29.95 box of software, doesn’t mean that everything out there is an immediate fake. Don’t judge others by your own limitations.

  7. Rationalising based on time
    Rationalising based on time travel as we might conceive it is not going to get us very far. Remember all those stories of aliens and men in black tooling around in strange vintage cars and wearing anachronous costumes? If this is an alien farting around among the terrestrials on a lark then the dress and the communication device are likely to be strange and slightly inappropriate for the time. They seem to get a kick out of that or perhaps they have such a poorly developed aesthetic sense that they don’t even realize how far off they are stylistically.
    Personally, I suspect that it is some innocent gismo or the woman is shielding her face with whatever she happened to have in her hand when she realizes she is being caught on camera, but I am game for the fortean too, so keep bring this stuff on Grail!

  8. Run Forest RUN!
    Shall we all sit down and watch Forest Gump.. and stand in awe of how Tom Hanks was able to time travel?? Very fortunate for the film makers that Tom Hanks had a time machine!! Just AMAZING!

    1. I just love these “Blowup”
      I just love these “Blowup” type puzzles wherein one is tasked to minutely examine old photographs for every conceivable hint or clue. After a long bout of this I thonk one is transported back into the time of the photograph or footage in a manner that is novel. It is also a bit like Philip Glass’ music with the hynotic repetitions. Gazing for long periods of time at a photograp is like scrying. Surprising things start popping out of your mind if you keep at it.

      1. Synchronicity
        I have just finished an afternoon (UK Time) of scanning in dozens of my father’s photographs from the 1940’s and 50’s. I was thinking about exactly what you are describing – scrying is a good word for it. Then I opened up the Daily Grail for a catch-up and lookie here what I find.

  9. two bars
    the most amazing thing is that she apparently gets service in 1928. This factor alone – the service – makes me wonder about the time traveler bit. Humanity today requires satellites and towers that did not exist in 1928 so our phones would work. Also, who the hell would she be talking to? Another time traveler? Maybe she just has arthritis and an itchy ear. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but i need more evidence.

    If she is on a cell, all that tells me is that douchebags who talk too loud on their phones haven’t learned they;re lesson. Nice to see transvestites learning how to time travel though.

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