Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Time Traveler spotted at the 1928 Chaplin film "The Circus"

Yeps

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,456
Location
Philly
My guess is that it is a guy dressed as a woman for the shot and he is covering his face to hide that he is a guy. Just like stunt doubles always have their heads turned, tucked, or blocked.

Apparently this is not in the actual film, but in the footage of the premiere, or at least that was my understanding.
 

Amy Jeanne

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,852
Location
Colorado
I was under the impression that it was a random street shot also. I still think it's a woman who did a lot of farm work in her day. lol
 

Smithy

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,139
Location
Norway
One thing with the chap in the sunnies is if you look at an enlargement, the camera he is holding is of the period, very similar to this 1940s Agifold:

1940s_Agifold_camera.jpg
 

Serial Hero

A-List Customer
Messages
450
Location
Phoenix, AZ
That's a high school or college sweater of some kind, with a felt logo stitched on the front -- they were very common and very popular with young men of the day. Also, those are safety glasses he's wearing, not hipster shades.

A sweater and safety glasses; sounds a lot like the way a hipster would dress. maybe he wore those glasses while riding his motorcycle?
 

Blackjack

One Too Many
Messages
1,198
Location
Crystal Lake, Il
Wait a minute, how do you say that camera is the one he's holding? It doesn't even remotely look anything like that...people have got so jaded and skeptical today. Every scientist I've looked up since this thread started says the same thing, that time travel in the future is not only possible but probable. I'm not saying that I think these people are time travelers, but I certainly don't rule anything out when it comes to science.
 
Last edited:

12345Michael543

New in Town
Messages
12
Location
Maryland
Okay people, calm down.

Last night I managed to get scheduled for use of the Quantum-Temporal Displacement Device (QTDD) over at early 21c Baltimore, and took a hop down to 1928 Hollywood.

I asked the woman what she thought she was doing? Didn't she know that Pers-Comps were achronal for 20c? And she assured me that no matter how it looked on YouTube, she wasn't doing anything inappropriate, and she even had proof that she'd gone through a contraband check by Hometime Security, prior to translating down to 1928.

And in any case, most video records of that era were destroyed in the Great Global Catastrophe in late 2012 and the EMP attacks by the alien space lizards of 2034. So even if she had violated protocols, it's not like it really mattered all that much.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a hot date 25 years ago, and want to make it clear to Biff that I expect the DeLorean to be waxed and detailed for it tonight.
--
Michael

PS - As long as I was contemporary with 1928, I displaced over to Potter, Nebraska, on 6 July, and watched the world's largest hailstone fall to Earth. It was as moving an event as all priests claim, and I can now fully appreciate how it led to Meteorologicanetics displacing voodoo (Eastern Reformed) as the world's major religion by the early 23rd century.
 

Smithy

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,139
Location
Norway
Wait a minute, how do you say that camera is the one he's holding? It doesn't even remotely look anything like that...people have got so jaded and skeptical today. Every scientist I've looked up since this thread started says the same thing, that time travel in the future is not only possible but probable. I'm not saying that I think these people are time travelers, but I certainly don't rule anything out when it comes to science.

I didn't say that was the exact camera he was holding. I said it was very similar to the Agifold.

If you look at an enlargement of the picture, the camera he is holding has the accordian lens which was common at the time, like the Agifold I posted

viajantes.jpg


Sorry but the camera he is holding is not some futuristic, super-duper photographic device. It's a period 1940s handheld camera.
 

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,190
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
It does look like a sweater over a zippered, hooded piece.
I've also wondered if the hands holding the camera belong to the guy who was photoshopped in or the original person. One hand looks a bit pudgy (or the photo is blurred) to belone to that guy.
It looks like the head and torso were added to an existing body.
 

Blackjack

One Too Many
Messages
1,198
Location
Crystal Lake, Il
It does look like a sweater over a zippered, hooded piece.
I've also wondered if the hands holding the camera belong to the guy who was photoshopped in or the original person. One hand looks a bit pudgy (or the photo is blurred) to belone to that guy.
It looks like the head and torso were added to an existing body.

As noted, the image is indeed available through the official website for Canada’s museums. It was part of the exhibit “Their Past Lives Here” from Bralorne-Pioneer, available to the public since 2004. It was put online since February this year, perhaps before that. And the peculiar “time traveller” image was only noted as such in the end of March.
Given the source, we would assume the photo is authentic, and correctly dated to c.1940. Indeed, an Error Level Analysis suggests the image was not digitally tampered with, or at least that if it was, the author was smart enough to normalize the error across the whole thing. It’s a good job, if it was a job. And again, given the source, we would assume it was not a job.
 

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,190
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
I wouldn't assume because the image came from a museum is it not a fake. History has handed down quite a few items alleged to be authentic but are not.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
107,283
Messages
3,032,986
Members
52,748
Latest member
R_P_Meldner
Top