It was the old man and the sea of clones.
In celebration of renowned author Ernest Hemmingway’s 125 birthday on Sunday, a bar in Key West Florida hosted its annual lookalike competition of the penman.
The contest at the local watering hole Sloppy Joe’s Bar, one of the celebrated writer’s favorite hangouts, celebrates what Hemmingway called mainland America’s southernmost point his home in the 1930s.
More than 120 white-bearded contestants came in hopes that the bell would toll for thee on Sunday after preliminary elimination rounds earlier last week.
After 10 previous attempts, 71-year-old David “Bat” Masterson, a retired helicopter pilot from Daytona Beach, was crowned this year’s “Papa” — a nickname given to the novelist during his life, according to The Associated Press.
Hemingway’s spirit of adventure — he loved big game fishing across the globe along with baseball, boxing, bullfighting and plenty of drinking — is another major part of the competition.
“I think it’s a split, and I think that’s what’s fun,” his great-grandson Stephen Hemingway Adams said of those admiring the late author’s writing and outdoorsmanship.
Masterson himself said he has “a thirst for life and a quest for adventure” as well, he told CBS Miami.
“I like to fly and ride motorcycles and jump out of airplanes and that sort of stuff…And Hemingway was a very adventurous man, and I admire him for that.”
The competition also featured a pretend running of the bulls down the streets of the tourist isle.