John Roland's Face, Up on a Billboard, at the Entrance to the Queens Midtown Tunnel

By Dan Rattiner

Posted 02/20/2009

It's quite startling to be driving into New York City to come upon a spot where the face of a good friend of yours is on a billboard 40 feet high.

Yet, there it was. The picture is of John Roland, former ABC anchor, bon vivant, unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Westhampton Beach two years ago and general all around good guy.

He smiles down. He is selling a product on this billboard. I went by it too fast to really notice what it was. But the owners of whatever the product was thought that the face of John Roland would be a plus in trying to sell this product. It surely is.

Indeed, I find myself thinking that the good citizens of Westhampton Beach must be kicking themselves thinking that they turned away this man, who now looks down on all incoming traffic so benevolently, when he ran for mayor.

Roland is the only person I ever met who was sold an oceanfront house because he was likeable. He became friends with this free spirited and flamboyant millionaire named Jim Warren who, among other things, for about 10 years, held the Fourth of July fireworks for Westhampton Beach on his beach. He also held celebrity touch football games (which Roland announced) and had a sort of party scene going on there for years and years. You couldn't miss the house. Next to the La Ronde Beach Club, it had an actual World War I bi-plane anchored to the roundabout in front of the house. It was always quite a surprise, seeing it there, when driving down Dune Road.

After awhile, Warren decided to move on. And he wanted to sell the house to another free spirit. He selected Roland, a good friend and another bachelor back then. According to Roland, Warren told him an asking price that was the market value of the house, but so far in the stratosphere as far as a simple news anchor's salary was concerned that he could not even consider it. So Warren lowered the price. Roland scoffed again. So Warren lowered it still again. Roland, who was not even in the market to buy the house, eventually found that this one was landing in his lap because Warren was practically giving it away to him. Warren wanted the party to continue on after he left. He had chosen Roland.

Roland was the news anchor for ABC-TV's eleven o'clock news for nearly 20 years. He had high ratings mostly because people loved to watch him. Now they can watch him again. He's been doing this sort of consulting work now for about six years. I bet if he ran again for mayor again they'd elect him this time. He's about done, finally, remodeling the house, with the help of his wife, Joanna. He's got the time and the inclination.