After the turn of the century, as Bunker Hill slid in status from chic to slummy, Angels Flight appeared in so many noir movies and TV shows that it should have its own SAG card.

Whether in London, a slummy neighbourhood of Tunis, or in whole Syrian cities, what stood out was the deep need to be included.

With remarkable precision and emotional weight, these stories depict working-class Glasgow: slummy, rowdy, tribal, drunken, despondent, quixotic and irrepressible.

We accompany the volatile, sparkling-eyed charmer to the slummy muraled cafes and dance halls where artists, writers, journalists and models drank, flirted and quarreled.

For just 25 cents, anyone could go watch him work at the 5th Street Gym, an airless, low-ceilinged hotbox up a wood staircase in a slummy part of Miami Beach.