Footage is at 2:41, but watch the guy introduce it, he’s interesting and cute

People Magazine is running this bizarre video (above) from a Irish filmmaker who jokingly claims to have found evidence of a time traveler in the DVD extras accompanying a 1928 Charlie Chaplin film, The Circus. In the clip, a woman who looks like a man in drag is shown walking and talking on a small device that looks just like a modern cell phone. The filmmaker, George Clarke, very convincingly explains that he’s a film buff and has screened this footage to over a 100 people, none of whom can come up with an explanation for it.

I racked my brain for a moment and initially thought it might be a walkie talkie. They’re on a film set after all, and they would presumably have access to the latest technological advances, although a walkie talkie would be huge back then. The only problem is that walkie talkies weren’t invented until 1940. So why would someone be miming talking on something that didn’t exist back then? It’s kind of creepy.

Clarke does bring up something else it could be, but dismisses that theory – an AM/FM radio. Only this is what radios looked like in the late 20s. The first portable radio was invented in 1920, but again it was very bulky. This is surely an interesting mystery.

I was about to publish this with a big shrug, when I read a comment from a YouTube user that pretty much solves the mystery.

“Moviesunrated” writes “Search up “Western Electric Model 34A” on Google, and you’ll see there’s a hearing aid from 1925 that looks just like a mobile phone.” It does! There is a photo of that hearing aid below with more information here. I guess it’s just a hearing aid available at the time and not some mysterious technological advance that no one could have anticipated. In 2010 hearing aids are so tiny they fit deep in our ears and phones with cameras and internet access are about the size of that 1920s hearing aid. It’s only a matter of time before phones fit in our ears too.

When I was researching this post I found this fascinating blog, Paleofuture.com, in which they show visions of future technology from the past. (I love those “kitchens of the future” segments from the 40s and 50s!) Even in the 1970s they thought portable telephones would be huge.