Hemingway Look-Alikes Invade Key West For Festival
KEY WEST (CBS4)- More than 120 stocky, bearded men resembling Ernest Hemingway have invaded Key West to compete in the "Papa" Hemingway Look-Alike Contest, a highlight of Key West's annual Hemingway Days, a six-day festival that continues through Sunday.
The competition takes place at Sloppy Joe's Bar, a watering hole frequented by Hemingway, when he resided in Key West throughout the 1930s.
The first preliminary round was Thursday evening, the day of Ernest Hemingway's 112th birthday anniversary. The second round is set for Friday and the winner is to be chosen Saturday night by a judging panel of past winners.
Many contestants keep coming back year-after-year, despite never winning. A few have been at it for more than 15 years.
Hemingway Days 2011 also includes an offbeat "Running of the Bulls" as a facet of a Hemingway Street Fair on Saturday, the Key West Marlin Tournament and culmination of a short story contest directed by author and Hemingway granddaughter Lorian Hemingway.
Ernest Hemingway lived and played hard in Key West, where he wrote some of his most famous works including "Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Green Hills of Africa" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls."
