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I've never done it with a pie (or heard of anyone doing it before), but I remember cooking my first few Thanksgiving turkeys in a big paper grocery bag. This was closer to 40 years ago than 30, so I don't remember why it was supposed to be the "best" way to do it. My mother-in-law at the time told me to do it that way, and she was pretty insistent about it, so I did. 

I've baked bread in a brown paper bag before, but never a pie.  It worked well for the bread.

I've baked a turkey in a bag, but never a pie. HOWEVER - pies baked in a paper bag are the claim to fame for The Elegant Farmer in Wisconsin (USA), and they ship them all over the country (the reason I love their pies is that they make the cherry ones with Sturgeon Bay cherries, which is what we had growing up in Wisconsin and they were SOOOO good but is not something readily available in Maine were I now live - but that's obviously a separate issue from the bag question)

Somebody just added The Paper-Bag Cookery Manual to the EYB database. (Every day I like to take a look at what books have been added recently, while I'm having lunch.)

Although now that I look at the description maybe they're using the term loosely.

I think of it as a common cooking technique 1920-1940 ?? I'm not good with dates so I am basing this on people I knew who used bags. I remember using a brown bag for chicken when I was 11 or 12. See https://musingsofaministerswife.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/brown-bag-it-recipes-cooking-in-a-brown-paper-bag/  or https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41406/41406-h/41406-h.htm