I see we have yet another case of old wives tales being purveyed by the Cameo armchair detectives. So to clarify matters, Hughie Smith from Trowbridge Street off Brownlow Hill was the street entertainer. Ged is correct, his stepson, Jim Elliot, who is a friend of mine has written a book about him entitled Once Upon A Time In Liverpool. The various men in the bag that Hughie used included Johnny "Snowy" Brady and Billy Carlin, who both lived in the same tenement block as Hughie. I am surprised that this particular stigma has now passed onto Charlie Connolly because for years, according to the "experts", it was George Kelly who was supposed to be the man in the bag! Neither man were ever Hughie's stooge. Both proud men, they would never have stooped so low as to make a public exhibition of themselves. Having said that, Hughie was a colourful character and a great personality. He was a docker and an extremely intelligent and well-read man "Off stage". As for Emma Gill, I have it on good authority that she wasn't even born when "Uncle Georgie" was wrongly executed in 1950.