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Hamptons Diary: Bill Boggs, “How I Fell In Love with ‘The Hamptons’”
All The Way Back To Then: How I Fell In Love with “The Hamptons”
The tale begins in the Pre-Kardashian Era: 1975.
In the garden behind a clothing store on East 60th Street in Manhattan, on a warm June afternoon, I met three people: Liza Minnelli, Ben Vereen, and Dr. Robert Levine, MD. Jacques Bellini, the store owner, says, “You and Bob could be great friends.” We hit it off, and Bob invited my girlfriend and me to his rented home in Westhampton for the weekend. The beach, the sky, the ocean, his wine… I loved it.
When Lightning Strikes
Two years later, I’d fallen madly in love with an Austrian woman visiting NYC. We met on the reviewing stand at the end of the New York Marathon, 1977, The Dawn of Planet of the Discos, and we were hit by a “coup de foudre,” as the French say, “a bolt of lightning.” Within two days, we were making plans to see each other in Ireland over Thanksgiving vacation from my TV show, Midday Live with Bill Boggs.
After one particularly passionate interlude at Ashford Castle, where we were staying, we had a couple of Irish coffees. I learned that night that Irish coffee can “knock you out and then wake you up in the middle of the night.” With the caffeine rushing through my body, I woke up around 3 a.m., and I was dreading our parting.
A Man and A Woman … Need A Plan
I vowed to get an advance on a novel based on our story—a man and woman who have fallen in love but have to part to return to their respective countries. My plan was to use the advance to rent a house somewhere on the beach in “The Hamptons.” I got $30,000 from Grossett and Dunlap and wrote the book, At First Sight, by hand, waking up at 5 a.m., writing for ninety minutes before jogging, and then getting to the WNEW-TV studios by 9:30 a.m.
I was lucky to find one of farmer John White’s beach shacks behind a giant sand dune abutting his farm in Sagaponack. We had a spectacular summer together and parted, even more in love than before. She returned to Europe. Our long-distance love affair lasted about three years, but sadly, distance and time finally tore us apart.
The Best Advice
Fast forward to 2015. I was visiting friends at their wonderful home in East Hampton. I left them to stroll around the town, and met up with a good friend, exclaiming to her how happy I’ve always been on the East End. Luckily, she was a real estate broker and shrewdly suggested that I sell one of my investment properties in Ocean City, N.J., and roll over the proceeds into a home somewhere in East Hampton. A month later, she got her commission when I purchased my place in a woody area of Springs — and I’ve been blessed with ten of the happiest years of my long life. As I like to say, “Somehow, I pulled it off.”
Though my house is in East Hampton, I’m particularly fond of Sag Harbor — you can feel its soul as you walk its streets. I’m a member at Guild Hall, the Sag Harbor Cinema, and the Bay Street Theater. And I always enjoy the most soulful place of all—the beach, walking, reading, thinking, and lying in the sun toasting after coming out of the ocean. (Note: My dermatologist has been cautioned not to read this essay.)
Oh yes, that intuitive clothier, Jacques Bellini, was totally correct. Bob Levine and I have been fast friends ever since, enjoying plenty of beach, sun, and very good wine.
And with that, end of story.
