THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 19, 1996 TAG: 9607180124
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 70 lines
You can call Darrell Perry ``Papa'' if you like.
He earned the handle last Halloween night when he won the Hemingway look-alike contest against all local comers.
Early Wednesday morning he and his wife Jacki boarded an airliner for Key West where he will be Virginia's entry in a weekend gathering of nearly 100 Ernest Hemingway wannabes.
They will face off, so to speak, at Sloppy Joe's Bar, for the 16th annual contest that began in 1981. It was at Sloppy Joe's that the late Nobel laureate hung out in the 1930s between novels to drink a little whisky, do a little deep sea fishing and swap a few war stories. The look-alike contest is part of a 10-day-long Hemingway Days festival that takes place in Key West, July 12-21, and includes workshops, golf and fishing tournaments, a 5K run and a regatta.
Perry, 49, is a Virginia Beach contractor who specializes in asphalt and paving projects, not writing prize-winning literature.
But since he looks like the rugged author in his bewhiskered heyday, Perry won an all-expense trip to Key West to enter his chiseled mug in the nationwide contest.
Should he win, Perry said in terse Hemingway style, he would receive a paid weeklong stay at a Gulf-front hotel, free dinners, a bar tab at Sloppy Joe's and be called on for innumerable appearances on nationally televised talk shows - maybe even ``Oprah.''
``I don't know if I can take it,'' he said.
``I can,'' said Jacki, who is enjoying her husband's brief celebrity.
It was quite by accident that Perry entered the local contest, held at what was then Sloppy Joe's Bar on Rudee Inlet. He stepped off a Rudee Inlet charter fishing boat and into the line of sight of some friends who recognized a Hemingway double when they saw one.
Hemingway's grizzled visage is part of the bar's logo and Perry's friends instantly made the comparison.
``Everybody was pointing at it (the logo) and saying, `Man, you gotta get in that contest,' '' Perry recalled. ``I won the damn contest - I mean there was no competition.''
The next thing he knew, Perry was on his way to Key West with Jacki to see if his face will be judged most Hemingwayesque among scores of others who flock to the Florida island at this time of year.
A brochure handed out to contestants warns that competition will be very stiff and that some entrants are less than scrupulous in their quest for the annual title.
``Know your competition,'' the document cautions. ``The look-alikes often arrive in Hemingway garb - safari outfits, khakis and even excruciatingly hot fisherman's turtleneck sweaters. Many entrants have been competing for years. Be prepared. They have become acquainted with each other. Some bring their own cheering squads. Others stoop to attempting to bribe the judges (past look-alike winners and Hemingway family members).''
Winning is not that important, said Perry. ``We just got back from Key West two months ago. I just want to have a good time.''
``This'll be our honeymoon,'' added Jacki.
Ernest Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for his novella ``The Old Man and The Sea,'' which also helped him win the Nobel prize for literature in 1954. He committed suicide on July 2, 1961. His other works include ``The Sun Also Rises,'' ``A Farewell to Arms,'' ``For Whom the Bell Tolls,'' ``To Have and Have Not,'' and a handful of short stories such as ``The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' and ``The Snows of Kilimanjaro.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Darrell Perry, 49, a Virginia Beach contractor, won the local Ernest
Hemingway look-alike contest after being ``discovered'' near the
then-Sloppy Joe's Bar at Rudee Inlet. by CNB