1928 Time Traveler Caught On Film?

Many of you have submitted a story about Irish filmmaker George Clarke, who claims to have found a person using a cellphone in the "unused footage" section of the DVD The Circus, a Charlie Chaplin movie filmed in 1928. To me the bigger mystery is how someone who appears to be the offspring of Ram-Man and The Penguin got into a movie in the first place, especially if they were talking to a little metal box on set. Watch the video and decide for yourself.

Looks like a hearing aid.

[Shadmere]

Obviously it's not clear what kind of aid it is, specifically, but it looks like an old ear trumpet.

Like this thing. [hearingaidmuseum.com]

Not a cell phone.

[davev2.0]

It is an early carbonic (electric) hearing aid.

It was a hearing aid

[Valiss]

This was released in 1924:

http://hearing.siemens.com/sg/10-about-us/01-our-history/milestones.jsp?year=1924 [siemens.com]

Seems like it could easily be that.

Re:OK, I'll bite.

[ELitwin]

If you can pretend that the technology for time travel actually exists in the distant future, then can't you pretend that the the technology for a communication device would be vastly different and not need cell-phone towers?

Ancient Hearing Aid

[HighOrbit]

It looks to be an old lady, so its entirely possible that what he is seeing is something like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ardent_hearing_aid.JPG [wikipedia.org] which is part of this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkney_Wireless_Museum [wikipedia.org] also seen here http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display.aspx?id=6713 [sciencemuseum.org.uk]

Re:Simple explanation

[Derek Pomery]

FWIW, according to the video, this isn't actually the movie.
This is a historical piece of the time showing people going into the Hollywood premiere of the film.

Buy my movies

[Sean_Inconsequential]

All I got from that video was "I hope this video goes viral so I can use it to advertise my movies."

Re:OK, I'll bite.

[beav007]

It is most likely a Western Electric Model 34A "Audiphone" Carbon Hearing Aid [hearingaidmuseum.com], which was commercially available from 1925. The lady in question was probably talking into it to adjust the volume, or see if it was still working.

Hooray for the publicity grab!