This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A retired banker from Tennessee beat 141 other white-bearded contenders to win the coveted Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest in Key West, Florida, on Saturday, at the eighth attempt.

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Joe Maxey, 68, of Cedar Hill triumphed at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, a hangout of the author when he lived in Key West in the 1930s.

A judging panel of former winners chose Maxey from a vast field which competed in two preliminary rounds and Saturday’s finals.

Maxey said he loved Hemingway’s writing and shared the author’s fondness for mojitos and women.

During his Key West years, Hemingway wrote literary classics including For Whom the Bell Tolls and To Have and Have Not.

The contest is a highlight of the annual Hemingway Days festival that honors the author’s literary legacy and adventurous lifestyle.

The contest was judged by a panel of former winners including Michael Groover, husband of celebrity chef Paula Deen, who won in 2018. Many contenders wore casual sportsmen’s garb or thick sweaters, attempting to emulate Hemingway’s characteristic appearance in his later years.

Crowds of spectators roared approval as they paraded onstage and took turns speaking. Some sang parodies pleading for victory. One trumpeted a melody on a conch shell.

The celebration ends on Sunday, the 120th anniversary of Hemingway’s birth.