2011 Winner: Matt Gineo
The first time I entered the Hemingway look-alike contest in Key West in 2000, I showed up with scraggly three-day beard, got up on stage and introduced myself as Matt Gineo, and was promptly booed right off the stage. I had my laughs, had a few drinks, and that was that. This was quite a […]
2012 Winner: Greg Fawcett
I first started going to Key West in the mid ‘90s for lobster season with a group of friends. For the first couple of years we stayed at a house on Petronia Street during the month of August. In 1998 we rented a house on Elizabeth Street a block off Green. A couple of us […]
2013 Winner: Stephen Terry
I’ve had a full beard for most of my adult life, and it was red before I shaved it off when my daughter was born in 1994. After a couple years, I decided to regrow it – Only instead of the red color, it grew back red and white. As time went on and the […]
2014 Winner: Wally Collins
While getting my haircut and a beard trim in 2008 my barber Ron Thomas (Papa 2008) suggested I attend the Contest in Key West. Little did I know that I could never thank Ron enough as there is no where on earth where you can have this much fun with your clothes on. My 42 year […]
2015 Winner: Charlie Boice
Once upon a time a very good friend of mine suggested that I get into the Hemingway Look a Like contest. Since the Keys have been one of my favorite vacation places I showed up at Sloppy Joes on Thursday night to see what it was all about. I competed in my first year on […]
2016 Winner: David Hemingway
I was born in Furth Germany in 1950. In 1955 I was adopted by an American couple, Major T.S. Hemingway (U.S. Army) and his wife Charlotte stationed in post war Germany. This is why whenever ask ‘the question’ my answer was always “No, I am not related to Ernest but my father always said we […]
2017 Winner: Richard Filip
My first encounter with the Keys was in 1982 when a friend and I visited Key West. I was so enamored with the Keys that I bought a 42′ Cruiser and docked it at Bud and Mary’s in lslamorada and enjoyed many fishing memories. Fast forward to 2007 when my wife, Jeanne and I decided […]
2018 Winner: Michael Groover
It was July of 1999, my brother, Hank, my son, Anthony and I were vacationing on Big Pine Key. We hopped over to Key West and happened upon Sloppy Joe’s during the Earnest Hemmingway Look-a-Like Contest. Hank and I entered. I was nervous and mumbled one sentence as I walked across the stage. Hank, with […]
2019 Winner: Joe Maxey
My story to becoming PAPA 2019 is probably very similar to others. In 2010, I had grown a beard for the first time in my life. My wife and I decided to stop in at our favorite place in Key West, Sloppy Joe’s, to buy t-shirts. When we walked in the man behind the counter […]
2021 Winner: Zach Taylor
Rite of Passage Hard to believe, but my Papa journey started in 1998 as a Papa supporter. My father-inlaw, Papa 2000 Carlie Coley and Mama Coley, came back home to Georgia from an anniversary trip to Key West in 1997 and explained to the family that he had competed in an Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike contest […]