HLAS History

The Hemingway Look-Alike Contest was birthed in the bowels of Sloppy Joe’s on a hot and five Margarita night by a fortunate few who, when sitting around laboring over what to do in the hot, sticky, sweaty, humid, no business, natives starving, months of July, were surprised when an unexpected apparition appeared of The Late and Great Ernest Hemingway.

It has been passed down to us, by conch rumor, that Papa appeared to those fortunate few that evening saying “I so love this Island with all it’s locals, bubbas, conchs, maidens, cats, fish and fishermen, that I will aid and assist you with your July dilemma, by endorsing a week long Birthday Party Celebration to be held each ear in my honor”.

The flabbergasted fortunate few who witnessed Papa’s talking spirit that evening, clinched their Margarita glasses, raising them to the dirty ceiling on high, and voiced “Here’s to you Papa…happy birthday…we vow each year, during the week of your birthday, to have a week long celebration to commemorate you, your birthday and your talents”.

And so it was, that now we, The Hemingway Look-Alike Society, each year during the third week of the hot, sweaty, sticky, humid, bit now a month with lottsa business and the natives doing pretty doggoned good month of July, we eagerly congregate to celebrate our larger than life friend, Ernest Hemingway at Sloppy Joe’s in Key West, Florida.

We, the Hemingway Look-Alike Society, share with Ernest Hemingway our ever so apparent common trait, (our pretty faces) but we Look-Alikes, vow to further strive to share and provide friendship, camaraderie, fellowship, good will and all that is good in the world.

Therefore we, The Hemingway Look-Alike Society, deem the birthplace of the Look-Alike inspiration, Sloppy Joe’s, to be our #1 bar of choice, our main watering hole, tho perchance we stray, we will always return to Sloppy Joe’s, our place to meet and encourage spirit de corps, good fellowship, and good clean fun.  Sloppy Joe’s, where we will gather each year to cheerfully raise our glasses on high and in unison say…”We love ya…Happy Birthday Papa”.

March 02, 1999 Birthplace Sloppy Joe’s

By: Michy A. Meitz