The "Papa" Hemingway Look-Alike contest drew 122 mostly bearded contestants to Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, Florida, over the weekend, with Charlie Boice winning the title for the first time in his 15 years of entering.
A panel of judges, including a few past winners who are members of the Hemingway Look-Alike Society, selected Boice as the winner and presented the Palm Beach Gardens resident with a medal sporting the late author’s face. Boice is a 56-year-old retired air traffic controller. During the competition he prided himself on sharing Hemingway’s
love for marlin fishing, according to The Associated Press.
“Winning the
Hemingway Look-Alike Contest is fantastic,” Boice told CBS Miami. “Fifteen years is a long time, but when you’re hanging around with guys like this all the time . . . I would do it for another 15 years.”
“I feel like a champion,” he continued. “Hemingway was a champion; Hemingway did a lot of things. It’s like you caught that big thousand-pound marlin right about now.”
Saturday was Boice’s 15th attempt at the annual competition that is in its 35th year. The event is part of the Hemingway Days festival that honors its namesake’s legacy and his years spent in Key West in the 1930s. The festival also features the “Running of the Bulls” three-day Marlin tournament in addition to a short story competition hosted by Hemingway’s granddaughter Lorain Hemingway.
During his Key West years, the author was known to visit Sloppy Joe’s Bar often. Hemingway wrote his novels “To Have and To Have Not” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” as well as his non-fiction book “Death in the Afternoon,” while living in Key West.
Michael Groover, husband of TV chef Paula Deen, finished in the top five of Saturday's competition
The restaurant took to Facebook to share the highlights with the public:
The competition raises money for college scholarship funds from the Hemingway Look-Alike Society, according to the AP.
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