Queue "The Twilight Zone" Theme for this
October 25, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Sure, this could be some kind of high-tech digital hoax, and maybe that’s just what it is. No problem. But if it’s not, then I don’t know how to account for it. What do you think?
I sent the link to a doctor who has an interest in antique medical devices. Hopefully, I'll hear back from him.
Yes, probably explainable, but interesting nonetheless. And much, much more fun to conjecture on the time-traveller theory. Yes, who is he/she talking to? The ship? His buddy that he brought along?
When I saw the clip I was hoping for something more obvious, like a guy in an Old Navy t-shirt and torn jeans run by or something.
I like Anita's Tesla comment. Was just talking about him yesterday. Conspiracy!!!
I really don't see what the big deal about this clip is. It's a person walking with a hand against the side of the face. There's absolutely nothing in the shot that requires there be a phone, or anything else there. I've watched it through several times, and you can't see if the person is holding anything or not.
looks like a lady adjusting her hair or hat
That I wore pants to high school?
I'm very proud of you, Nick.
Oh, this again.
It's a conspiracy theory, Patrick.
I heard about it back in high school.
Needless to say: (1) someone back then just to fool us (the latter day saints) thinking she already got the idea of a piece of technology in advanced. (2) Was a funny candid camera shot which related to the (1). (3) Someone mentally abnormal to be pretended something else!
It may be that he himself is on the other end of the phone call. He could be smuggling cinematic ideas back to his younger self. Hence the shady character and odd behavior.
–RobertG
Well.. you know.. Tesla was still around in 1928. I'm sure there were plenty of odd devices floating around back then that we've lost all knowledge of now.
It's the great grandfather of the Verizon guy, and he's saying "Can you hear me now?"
Arguably, if you could manage time travel, how hard would it be to have a trans-temporal cell phone?
Not that I buy the time-travel theory, just taking a slightly contrarian position for the fun of it.
Not sure what's really going on, but the interpretation strikes me a bit like the interpretations of constellations or ink blots. We impose the familiar on the things that we see.
Perhaps the lady had an earache, and what she was holding up to her ear was a cushion to muffle sound or something that had medicine for the earache.
Cool bit! With a little look around I found this as a possible answer:
http://hearingaidmuseum.com/gallery/Carbon/WesternElectric/info/westelect34a.htm
I think it's a man in drag, with his hand up to cover his face so he is less recognizable. It's a silent film, isn't it? And he's in the background. He could be talking to the director. Or singing. For that matter, maybe it IS the director and he's yelling direction while putting himself in the scene for fun. Maybe that's why he looks at the cameraman.
Some thoughts: It's conditioning that causes us to believe that if someone is talking, and that person is holding something to his ear, he must be talking "into it." But that doesn't have to be true. It is possible to talk and hold something to one's ear (or temple – the ear doesn't even have to be the aim of the gesture) without that object being related to one's talking. It's also our conditioning to look at the shape of the hands and assume it's a "thin black device." Seeing it through 21st century eyes leads to jumping to conclusions.
I have lots of thought. But maybe it's more fun to think there was a time traveler at the Circus premier. 😀
Marc, you took the words out of my mouth. Let's apply Occam's Razor here: the man is right that it appears to be a man in drag, not a woman. If so, isn't it likely that he could be mentally unbalanced? If that's so, couldn't he be holding something up to his ear and jabbering away merrily, as if it were real? Or let's even grant that it's actually a woman–couldn't the same be true for her?
An odd video, to be sure, but more for how it may provide a glimpse into the world of a mentally ill person in Hollywood in 1928.
That hearing aid device would not typically be held the way she was holding it. The earpiece would be inserted in the ear, and the round portion of the handset was the microphone, therefore if she wanted to hear herself talking the device would just need to be held to the mouth in an upright position. If that is the device she is using, then it is also being held upside down in order for the microphone to be in proximity to the mouth. Good try, but incorrect, I believe.
Yes, I agree. There'd be no way to use a cell phone back then. Just for the record, I did not post this with the intention of endorsing his "time traveler cell phone" theory. I have no idea what this is. I just find it curious and am interested in what others here think.
I'm going with the poster on YouTube who suggested it was a type of early hearing aid:
http://www.hearingaidmuseum.com/gallery/Carbon/WesternElectric/info/westelect34a.htm
If someone was to go back in time to 1928 with their cellphone, how would they make a call? There were no cell towers or the any other infrastructure required to make a cell phone work back then.