KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) – A white-bearded Arizona restaurateur has won Key West’s annual “Papa” Hemingway Look-Alike Contest on his sixth attempt.
Wally Collins of Phoenix triumphed over 130 other entrants, including his son Matt Collins, late Saturday night at Sloppy Joe’s Bar. The bar was a favorite of Ernest Hemingway during the 1930s.
The contest is a highlight of the annual Hemingway Days celebration honoring the Nobel Prize-winning author who lived and wrote in Key West from 1931 until late 1939. The festival ends Sunday with an arm wrestling contest at Sloppy Joe’s.
Collins, who also has researched the role concussions may have played in Hemingway’s 1961 suicide, said he admired Hemingway’s ideals and taste for adventure.
Other look-alike entrants included celebrity chef Paula Deen’s husband, Michael Groover of Savannah, Georgia.