From Hollywood to Ground Zero: Solange Schwalbe’s Journey of Service and Resilience

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with Curveball. If you believe, you can achieve.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

A show where I interview guests that teach, motivate, and inspire. Today I am joined by Emmy Award-winning sound editor and author, Solange Swabi, better known as Hollywood. Solange career consists of works like Black Hawk Down and HBO's John Adams. And she decided to step away from Hollywood after the events of September 11, 2001. She was one of four women that was working deep in the trenches with uh over 1,500 uh responders. You know, she was one of uh four women that was working there and saw a lot of heartbreaks. So she decided to put her personal account into an upcoming book co-written with Matt Stern. It's called I Am Not Supposed to Know This. So we're gonna be talking to her about her her Hollywood career, her upcoming book, and everything that she's up to and gonna be up to. So, Solange, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

I thank you very much, Curtis. I'm very honored to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 1:37

I'm from Los Angeles. I'm a UCLA film school grad, graduated with honors, and I got in the film industry in 1981. I have about 175 box office features, which includes Goonies and Gramlins and Die Hard and Lethal Weapon and Flintstones and Pirates of the Caribbean and and and uh Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Moneyball. I've been extremely lucky in my career. And I was working on Blackhawk Down just be just after the 9-11 attacks. So it definitely changed the course of my career.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Yeah. I I mean you you spent decades building your successful Hollywood career. Um, so what compelled you you you know to walk away from that? What was going through your mind, you know, after the events of uh 9-11?

SPEAKER_02 2:38

I have no idea. Let me tell you how it worked. On the day of 9-11, I was living in a one-bedroom apartment in the Hollywood Hills. It was just me and my dog, and my alarm goes off at six o'clock, and the radio said the tower has been hit. I dashed across the room, turned on the TV, and witnessed the second tower being hit. It was a nightmare. It was horrible. I cried and cried and cried. It was awful because I've been going to New York City since 1980 for Christmas. So every year I go to New York City and we do the Top of the World Trade Center. So for me, when the towers were hit, it was like losing a friend. I felt crushed. I was felt awful. Well, my best friend in New York City called and I said, I'm not coming out. I cannot handle seeing the skyline compromise. I cannot come out. And he goes, Oh, no, no, you have to. You'll regret it if you don't. And I'm like, Oh, you know what? He's right. So I went. I didn't want to go, but I went. And so after Christmas, we're wandering around the site over and over and over again, taking photos of nothing. And what happened was I just suddenly said, I want to volunteer. Just like that. I said, I want to volunteer for no reason, not thinking about it, no premonition, nothing. I just said I want to volunteer. So we discovered the Salvation Army had a 24-hour respite center inside the parameters of ground zero, feeding the rescue workers with some, and they had supplies and gear and counseling and chiropractic, they had everything for free, just for the rescue workers. And they used volunteers to serve food. So that's what I did. I started volunteering for two weeks. That's all I was gonna do was two weeks out of there. No problem. While I was there, this gentleman was said, comes up to me and says, I've been watching you for the last week, and I really like the way you interact with the rescue workers. And I'm like, excuse me. He goes, Yeah, you want a job? And I said, Sorry, but I'm a sound editor in feature films. I don't know how to, I've never worn a hard hat in my life. I don't know how to do this, I don't belong here. And he goes, No, no, no, I can train you. It's that mouth of yours. What? He said, Yeah, you can talk to anybody. And I'm like, oh my God, I couldn't believe it. So I said, you know what? I'm gonna do this and see what happens. Not having a clue what I was getting into. Absolutely no idea. I didn't know I'd be there four months. I didn't know I'd be one of four women. I didn't know anything, nothing at all. I just took the job. I said yes. I was trained for a week and put into the pit of ground zero, not having a clue what I was getting into.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Well, speaking of that, you were one of four women there, uh, with over over 1,500 uh first responders working inside the pit. So uh what do you vividly remember about your first day there? And uh was there anything that uh challenged your expectations when you went in?

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Oh, the in my the whole thing. There wasn't anything that wasn't a challenge. All of it was a challenge. My boss walked me up to the edge of the pit and he pointed down, down, down. He said, That's a grapple rotter, that's an iron worker, that's this, that's that, and this is what they do, and this is the fire department, and this is what they do. And then he said, Follow me. And I wrapped around a ladder against the slurry wall and started down. And I'm like, What are you doing? I haven't been on a ladder in years. I can't go down a ladder. So I followed him down the ladder, and I'm facing the slurry wall and said to myself, What the hell am I doing here? I followed him down, and that was it. That's where my reality ended. It all became about ground zero. There was nothing else. My whole life ended right there. My everything I knew stopped when I hit the ground in the pit of ground zero.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Well, kind of tell us about your book. Uh, I'm not supposed to know this. Kind of you, you know, explain to listeners what they can expect when they read it. Uh, when is it coming out? And and what are the some of the uh experiences of truth you that you felt compelled to share that the public, you know, hasn't heard about?

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Never know. They never know. What my book does, it closes the gap between the attacks, the aftermath, and the conspiracy theories. My book is nothing about any of those three, not at all. My book is about the day-to-day life in the pit of ground zero during the cleanup efforts. No one knows about the cleanup efforts. No one knows what we did. There was no press allowed, no public, nothing. And it just just everything you read about 9-11 is about the attacks and the aftermath and the conspiracy theories. My book doesn't touch on any of that. My book is about my career and getting the job in ground zero and then what happened afterwards and how it changed my life and changed the course of my career. So being in the pit of ground zero was uh a total lifestyle unto itself. It was very toxic, it was very hideous, the conditions were awful. There were human remains everywhere, but it was a community of such um extreme, extreme elements that involved with the working in these conditions was unbelievable and unprecedented. My book, I'm not supposed to know this, is out. It's on Amazon, it's on Barnes and Noble, and my website, I'm not supposed to know this.com, I'm not supposed to know this.com, explains everything and it has photos and explanations and what it was like and why. A lot of it touches on why we were there, what was going on, and what what are what how extreme were the elements involved working in the pit of ground zero?

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Well, I know you worked uh alongside of you know police, firefighters, all kind of first responders. So what what did that experience uh teach you about current uh about um courage and sacrifice that permanently changed the way that you see humanity?

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Ugh uh got a couple hours? God, it was uh I don't even know where to begin. It is just so much. There were two contracts. There was uniforms and non-uniforms. The uniforms were fire police and um and EMS, non-uniforms were all the construction contractors, grappler operators, iron workers, so on and so forth. I was non-uniform. We worked side by side with the fire department, with the police department. We were one. The humanity, the service, the purpose, the purpose of being there was unbelievable. Why we were there, it it's so hard to explain because our job was a construction site with bodies and body parts. That is unprecedented. No one has ever worked in a site like this in America where you had to find body parts in a construction devastation demolition zone. It's never happened and it was just a nightmare. So it was um working side by side with the fire department and my colleagues, the other contractors, uh shared the humanity and the service and the resilience that we we uh held real tight and real close. And we were very um, we were all there for the same reason. Uh being one of four women, we were not treated any differently. I did not know we were one of four women until a couple years ago. I just found this out, and the difference is that we were not treated any different than anybody else. It didn't matter what your race, creed, color, gender, nothing mattered. Religion, nothing mattered. We were all treated the same, we all had the same job, we all had one goal was to find bodies and body parts and clean up the mess. It was unbelievable. It's so hard to explain.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Well, I know that you spent four months working at ground zero. So emotionally, how did you cope with what you were witnessing and were there ever moments where you felt like uh you weren't gonna be able to continue?

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Never. Not once. Get this, Curtis. Not once. I felt so empowered. I never felt stronger in my life than I did in the pit of ground zero. I was empowered, I had strength, I was healthy, I was just overwhelmed with responsibility and the joy of the people that I worked with and the humanity. It was it was overwhelming. It was when I got back to Los Angeles is where everything took a dump. It was getting back to Los Angeles is where I hit bottom. So during the cleanup efforts, I was fine. It was after the cleanup efforts is when I failed.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Well, what did you learn about yourself that you wouldn't have learned in Hollywood working at ground zero for those four months from ambition to service?

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Service. I learned service. I had no, I've never been uh a contributor of service ever. Working in the film industry, I would work on a movie, the movie would get released. I'd work on another movie, that movie would get released. There was no service involved. I never understood service until I started working at 9-11 at ground zero. And what happened was after I got back to Los Angeles and after I went through my real bad low point, um, uh two years later, I started teaching. And that's my contribution to service is teaching. If I can change one person's life, I have made a difference in one person's life. That's all I need. And I get to I get the opportunity to change these students' lives and give them direction, there's nothing like it. It is unbelievable, it is so empowering.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Well, working at Ground Zero, did you witness uh an act of kindness, you know, that that that that kind of changed the way that you see people and the and as well as the world? An act of kindness, yeah, like a specific act of kindness or or service or something like that that stood out to you.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Well, I don't know if it was an act of kindness, but there were relationships that were created in the pit of ground zero, which is so amazing to me. This one gentleman who worked for air conditioning, and the and the woman worked was a contractor for the general contractors that ran the entire pit. The two of them got together and fell in love at ground zero. They were mesmerizing. It was so contagious. Their love was so contagious, and it was just such a joy to be with them. And so it's like the gentleman who helped me out. I was walking towards the Salvation Army tent, and I was crippled because I'm doing 10 miles a day and my shin splints are so bad, and he pulls up in an ATV and says, Hey lady, you want to ride? I'm like, oh my God, I am so relieved. I got into the onto the ATV and he drove me to the to the Salvation Army tent, and we've been best friends ever since. He is to this day, we're still great friends. We're he's one of my best buddies. The people in the pit were my guardian angels. They would keep track of me every day, and they would keep track of my work and my location and if I was being safe or not, and they would watch me every day. I call them my guardian angels, and the ATV guys, my guardian angel, they just took care of me at the site.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Well, after more more than two decades after 9-11 has happened, what do you feel like today's generation or people who might have been uh too young to know what happened need to know about 9-11?

SPEAKER_02 16:16

It compromised our freedom. That's what they're not teaching in the school. The kids do not know what it was like before 9-11 with our freedom, our unconditional freedom is now compromised. That's what we need to teach in the schools.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Okay, well, tell us about any upcoming projects you're working on that people need to know about.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Well, this book has been my life because it took 20 years to write it. I wanted to write it, write it, write it, and I couldn't do it. I couldn't face it. The fifth year anniversary, I've been to every memorial, every single all 25 memorials. And the fifth anniversary and the 10th anniversary and the 15th anniversary, I just couldn't do it. I could not face the reality of what I went through those four months. So this past couple of years, my writer said, All right, Solange, it's time you need to, we need to sit down and write your story one chapter at a time. And I said, I'm not ready. He said, You are ready. This has been 25 years, you can do this. And so every week, one week at a time, we only worked on one chapter, and it worked. I can I've got this unbelievable book, and I'm very proud of it. And now it's full time. That's all I do full time is my book. So the only I don't have any projects coming up. It's the book that's all about the book, and it's about being able to get it out there and tell people and share my story about 9-11 and how it affected my life.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

And so throw out that website one more time so people can keep up with you.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

It's um I'm not supposed to knowthis.com. I'm not supposed to knowthis.com.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

All right. Well, close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on, or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Well, I do want to share what it was like when they recovered a body. Out of 2,753 people that were killed that day at the Twin Towers, there was only 174 bodies recovered. And that's it. That's not even 10%. So when they found a body, there would be what we would call a procession, and we would honor the whole pit would shut down, nobody worked, and we would honor the per the person recovered. They would be put in a white body bag, and body parts would go into a red biohazard bag. It'd all be put, and gear and everything would be put onto a stretcher. The stretcher would be covered with a flag, and then eight pall bears would take the stretcher to the bottom of the ramp, and the ramp would be lined with firefighters, police, construction workers, all up to the street. They would say a prayer at the bottom. They would walk the stretcher up the ramp very slowly, and at the top they would say another prayer. We all saluted, and then they would put the stretcher in an ambulance and take it to the Morgan site. So the procession is the one thing that the public does not know about. How we honored every single whole body that we found.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

It's absolutely amazing. Uh, and when is that book coming out again?

SPEAKER_02 20:03

It is out. I'm on Amazon.com, I'm on Barnes Noble, and I'm on Amplify and Bookstore.com. The book is out, and it came out August 11th, the month before 9-11. So I spent six weeks in New York City on a book tour and a lot of fun. It was really good. I'm very proud of this book. Very proud.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

As well as you should be, and ladies and gentlemen, to keep up with everything that Solange is up to and gonna be up to, visit I'm not supposed to know this dot com. And please go out and uh pick up that book, share this episode to as many people as possible, especially the today's generation who might not have been old enough to realize what was happening, that they definitely need to know because this is a big part of history that they're definitely gonna be reading about in their uh history books, and also to keep up with every time Living the Dream with Curveball releases a new episode. If you haven't done so, go sign up for the newsletter by visiting www.curveball337.com, where you can leave us a review, any suggestions, follow the show, listen to the show, all that good stuff. And please be sure to share the website and the show to everybody that you know. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Solange, thank you for your 911 service and your book and everything that you do, and thank you for joining me.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

I am very honored, Curtis. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, visit www.curveball337.com. Until next time, keep living the dream.