A little-known piece of Maritime history is that Twitter was born in Pictou, N.S. during the late 1800s.
The story of Twitter began back in 1894, when a young boy named George Johnston was inspired by a show he saw.
“He was five years old and the Wild West show was come to town,” George’s grandson Dana Johnston recounts. “He was just amazed at it there and from the age of five, he knew that's what he wanted to do.”
As a young man, George Johnston joined the circus as a clown named Twitter.
He worked as far south as Florida, in vaudeville and tent shows, doing everything from tumbling, to running games of chance.
“He ran a little show there. He was a story teller. He did a trapeze act with Twitter, Twilight, and Twinkle, I think was the name of their group,” says Dana. “He met faces like Jo Jo the dog boy and different big names.”
There's no way, Twitter the clown would have envisioned his name would become world famous as the name of a social media giant.
A number of family artifacts are featured in a special exhibit, at the Mcculloch Heritage Centre in Pictou.
“He was very good with sleight of hand, and also he had a big heart. He was known in town for being very kind, and he would often return money to people who may have lost a game with him,” says museum curator Michelle Davey.
“Twitter's popular locally because his family is still a popular family in town. It's a big family, but there also, with Dave Gunning releasing his Twitter's song a few years ago.”
Gunning was inspired by a small monument at Johnston's gravesite. It's a small clown, with a touching epitaph.
The Twitter exhibit will be on display at the museum until June. Family members are expected to add more artifacts to it to further tell the story of the forgotten clown.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh
