Next year will be the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Most folks who were adults at that time remember it like it was yesterday.
Many of us have also had years when we’ve felt like distancing ourselves from the anniversary commemorations. Even for those not directly impacted, memories of that day—and the days that followed—still bring back traces of a trauma we’d never felt before. A feeling of insecurity we’d never experienced. Perhaps actor Tony Danza summed it up best when he said “I don’t like revisiting how I felt.”
In some ways the trauma seems to deepen with time, as new layers of grief emerge–like memories of loved ones who shared those moments but are now gone.
This year I decided to crack open the door and look back, if only for a little while.
In doing so, I came across some videos I’d never seen before–interviews with celebrities of that time period discussing where they were on 9-11.
Tony Danza told a riveting, highly emotional story about his role as host of the 75th Miss America Pageant, which was set to be held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Sept. 22—not long after the attack.
As he wrote his monologue, heart heavy with grief and the added weight of having to inspire a nation, the tears flowed. Unable to come up with a proper conclusion, he reached an impasse.
Danza’s son, who had read a draft of his father’s speech, came to his assistance.
“When is the last time you said ‘The Pledge of Allegiance’?” he asked.
That was it. Danza realized that was the ending he needed.
On the night of the pageant, emotions were high and security was tight. Danza was so stressed he was afraid he’d mess up the Pledge of Allegiance. As he concluded his speech and began to recite the pledge, he became aware of strange noises.
He finally realized the source of the noise:
Leeves, who had been at home in Los Angeles with her husband and 8-month-old baby when the planes hit the twin towers, said she went into survival mode.
“I thought, ‘I’d better go to the supermarket and stock up on stuff.’”
She said she remembered an eerie silence when she arrived at the store.
“It was so quiet,“ she said. ”I mean there were lots of people there; the music wasn’t playing; everybody was walking around sort of solemnly being very polite to each other. ... It was just an eerie feeling.”
Like the rest of us, Leeves said she was glued to her television.
Both Leeves and Gilpin became emotional when discussing the death of their colleague, who was a passenger on one of the hijacked airplanes. David Angell was a cocreator, executive producer, and writer for “Frasier.” A key figure in sitcom television history, he also cocreated “Wings” and wrote for and produced the iconic show “Cheers.” He had 37 Emmy nominations and 24 wins. David Angell and his wife, Lynn, died on American Airlines Flight 11, which hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center on that sunlit morning.
While it seems like it should get easier to attend commemorations and discuss the events of that day, for many of us it still holds disturbing nuances.
Tony Danza said: “What’s so hard about talking about this is that you never feel like you did it justice. You never feel like you were able to convey ... how you felt, and how you want people to understand how you felt. That’s why it’s so much easier to not [talk about it].”
He concluded that it was “[his] generation’s Kennedy assassination.”
Then, mixing philosophy with humor he added: “It’s too bad that ... we couldn’t keep a grasp of that incredible spirit that we had right afterwards. ... Unfortunately, in L.A., we made a big sacrifice ... we put flags on our cars and stopped giving each other the finger for a couple of days.
“But you know, we had that feeling that we were really all one people–that we were in it together. It was really something.”
