Wisconsin man wins Key West's annual Ernest Hemingway lookalike contest

May 2024 · 2 minute read

This “Papa” was “not made for defeat.”

A Wisconsin man took home first prize in Key West’s annual Ernest Hemingway lookalike contest — 11 years after he first entered the event celebrating the famous writer’s life.

Gerrit Marshall, a retired television broadcast engineer from Madison, was crowned “Papa” himself after strutting his white beard and portly stomach across the stage of Sloppy Joe’s Bar, where Hemingway used to hang when he lived on the Florida key throughout the 1930s.

Marshall beat out nearly 140 other wide-waisted competitors across two preliminary rounds before finally taking home the trophy on Saturday, which coincided with his 68th birthday.

Gerrit Marshall triumphantly holds aloft his trophy alongside fellow competitors in the 2023 Hemingway lookalike contest AP
Nearly 140 lookalikes entered the competition this year. Previous winners from the Hemingway Look-Alike Society judge the contestants AP

“This is the best birthday I have ever had,” Marshall told the Associated Press.

As if their likeness wasn’t enough, Marshall’s birthday is just one day shy of Hemingway’s. He’s also tried his hand at writing short fiction and nonfiction.

“Like Hemingway, I have a love of the outdoors; I love fishing one heck of a lot,” Marshall said, noting that he loves catching northern pike and walleye back home in Wisconsin, and angling after tarpon while in the keys.

He couldn’t keep up with Hemingway’s prolific marital history, though.

“I only have one wife, but that doesn’t matter — that’s all I need,” Marshall said.

The real Ernest Hemingway, left, and his triumphant 2023 lookalike winner. The two have common interests, this year’s winner said

The event is judged and put on by the aptly named Hemingway Look-Alike Society as a part of Key West’s Hemingway Days festival, which commemorates the island’s famous former resident while raising money for local student scholarships, as well as marine life conservation.

This year, the event raised nearly $125,000, and a gaggle of khaki-clad Hemingways released a rehabilitated loggerhead sea turtle into the ocean.

Other events include a short story contest judged by Hemingway’s granddaughter, a running of the bulls event complete rolling bovine statues and red berets, the Key West Marlin Tournament, and general horsing around with conch shells and turtleneck sweaters.

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