How long have cell phones been around? The first mobile telephone call made from a car occurred in St. Louis, Missouri, USA on June 17, 1946, but the equipment weighed 80 lbs. The first commercially available device that we today would vaguely recognise as a cell phone was the 1G generation that appeared in Japan in 1979.

These are the facts that have recently been troubling Irish filmmaker George Clarke.

While perusing the bonus features on his copy of Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film The Circus, Clark noticed something that he was hard pushed to explain.

In a behind-the-scenes clip of people arriving at the film premiere in Hollywood, the figure of a woman is seen passing having what appears to be a conversation on a cell phone.

Clark claims that he showed the footage to an audience of 100 people, none of whom was able to provide a rational explanation, prompting him to speculate that what he was looking at was a time traveler.

What's the answer? Sott readers are an intelligent group. Is it CGI or other modern computer manipulation? A clever promotional stunt for Clark's soon-to-be-released movies?..

Watch the footage and let us know what you think.



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