The Circus Time Traveler 1928

This footage appears not in the film "Circus" but in outtakes, released on DVD, of Hollywood Boulevard preparing for the film’s premiere "The Circus" made in 1928 by Charlie Chaplin. Is that a man or a women in this movie? what exactly it is that she is doing? Talking on a cell phone in 1928? What do you think? Credit to George Clarke.