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Hemingway Days, Havana Nights in Key West

By Marian Betancourt

Scores of burly white-bearded men flock to Key West every July for Hemingway Days, a week-long celebration of the writer that culminates in a raucous party at Sloppy Joe’s bar to pick the winner of the Papa Look-alike Contest. This year was Hemingway’s 106th birthday and the 25th anniversary of the contest, one of many events honoring his work as author and sportsman. The week included literary readings, a short story contest award, a one-man play, a marlin fishing tournament, a street fair, various races on land and water, and the unveiling of a new statue of the writer in front of the Key West History and Art Museum in the old Custom House. There was even a running of the bulls, sort of.

All entrants become members of the Hemingway Look-alike Society, whose purpose is to promote the meaning of Hemingway, who lived in Key West from 1928 to 1939. They also raise scholarship money for Key West schools and have a lot of fun in the process. Anyone visiting Key West during this week could spot “Papas” everywhere. There were four smiling Papas in the pool at the Raddison Hotel one afternoon. These look-alikes appear in shops and restaurants, and at the more rowdy events. Of course, there may be an accidental look-alike, too. One man encountered in an elevator and questioned about his hopes for winning, said he was simply in Key West shooting a cable show about something else.

Most of this year’s 146 contestants were from Florida, but a few came from as far away as New York, Montana, and South Africa. Some wear Hemingway garb such as safari outfits, khakis, or even a wool fisherman turtle neck sweater, which this year’s winner Bob Doughty, 61, a mailman from Deerfield Beach, Florida, wore in 90 degree heat. It was his 8th try for the title and he said, he was thankful that he could finally get rid of the sweater. Runners up receive a 12-pack of Budweiser. Many “Papas” enter every year and all become members of the Hemingway Look-alike Society. Finalists have 15 seconds to make their pitch to the judges who are former winners, while several hundred screaming fans wave placards supporting their Papa choice. (The bar’s security staff wore orange tee shirts and ear plugs.)

Sloppy Joe’s, a former speakeasy, is in a 1917 building with Cuban tile, whirring ceiling fans, and jalousie doors that open onto the street. The bar’s namesake was Joe Russell, Hemingway’s boat pilot and fishing companion for 12 years. He was also the model for Freddy, owner of Freddy’s Bar and captain of the Queen Conch in To Have and Have Not, the film based on Hemingway’s novel. The bar had originally opened across the street on the day Prohibition was repealed in 1933.  When it moved to its current location on the corner of Duval and Greene Streets, customers simply picked up their drinks—and the furnishings--and carried them across the street.  The walls are covered with Hemingway memorabilia including a 119 pound sailfish he caught.

In one of the week’s earlier events, Papa look-alikes and friends were transported in a decorated conch train from Sloppy Joe’s to the birthday party and unveiling of a life-size Hemingway bronze created by sculptor Terry Jones, at Key West Museum of Art and History at the Custom House. Cake and wine was served, while guests toured a new exhibition of and memorabilia titled: Fishing, Friends, and Family: Hemingway in Key West 1928-1939.

Literary events included “Voices, Places, Inspirations,” sponsored by Yankee Freedom II Dry Tortugas Ferry and the Harry S. Truman Little White House Museum. Lorian Hemingway, the writer’s granddaughter and National Book Award and PEN nominee read from her memoir, Walk on Water. Florida mystery writers Randy Wayne White and Tom Corcoran were also on hand.

The winner of the annual Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition was announced at a party at her grandfather’s first Key West residence, Casa Antiqua. Lorian, who has directed the competition since 1981, read the winning story “The Chemical Nature of Things,” by Naomi Benaron of Tucson, Arizona.

The night before the look-alike finals, the garden of the Hemingway House and Museum was the setting for Hot Havana Nights, a gala benefit for the Key West Botanical Garden and Key West Island Bookstore. Guests enjoyed Cuban cuisine, live music from Miami’s Havana Soul, and dancing on a colorful plywood painted dance floor laid over the lawn for the occasion.

Hemingway’s Key West home is a big tourist attraction and one item of particular interest in the garden is an old painted ceramic urinal from the original Sloppy Joe’s that Hemingway brought home for his infamous six-toed cats to use as a water bowl. Sixty descendants of those cats live in pampered luxury at the home. Many of them carry the same six-toed trait but they seldom use the water bowl.

First two by Andy Newman; others by the author

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