The “Swingers” Party House

2016 was a great year for me as far as finding locations goes.  So many of my most-wanted unknown locales were identified.  Rod Tidwell’s home from Jerry Maguire, the Say Anything . . . amphitheatre, the Life Goes On house, the “Las Vegas” casino from the Season 4 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “And Did It . . . My Way” –  I could go on and on.  Another spot that I tracked down in 2016, but haven’t gotten around to blogging about until now is from Swingers.  Though the vast majority of the 1996 comedy’s locations are well-known and have long been documented online, late last year I went on a trek to find some of the missing ones, namely the Spanish-style house where Mike (Jon Favreau), Trent (Vince Vaughn), and the gang attended a party.  And I am happy to report that I was successful!

I literally had nothing to go on with this locale outside of the fact that, per Favreau’s DVD commentary, it was located in the Hollywood Hills.  In the scene leading up to the party, Mike and his four friends are shown driving (all separately!) on a curving L.A. road.   I figured that the segment was likely shot in the same vicinity as the house where the party scene was lensed.  Thankfully, while watching the Swingers Blu-ray, I was able to make out an address number of 7902 on the curb of a home that the boys pass.  (Unfortunately, my computer does not have the capacity to play Blu-rays, so all of my screen captures were taken from a regular DVD, which is why the 7902 number is not clear in the image below.)

I started searching the Hollywood Hills for houses with a 7902 address number and fairly quickly discerned that the boys drove by the residence at 7902 Fareholm Drive on their way to the party.  I was floored to make the discovery and immediately began scouring the area for the property where the soiree was held – unsuccessfully.  Though there are several rambling Spanish-style homes located on Fareholm, none of them matched the pad from Swingers.  So back to the drawing board I went.

Since the movie’s 20th anniversary was fast approaching, interviews with the cast and crew were popping up all over the internet.  I decided to pour through every one I could find with the hope that some information about the party house would be revealed.  I got lucky when I came across this fabulous article on the Grantland website titled “So Money: An Oral History of Swingers.”  (If you’re a fan of the film, I highly recommend a read.)  Not only did the article mention the party scene, but it detailed the exact street it was shot on!  Thank you, Grantland!  According to those interviewed, the production team could not afford to rent a home to shoot the soiree sequence, nor could they afford to hire the large amount of extras that would be required.  So line producer Nicole LaLoggia and director Doug Liman asked some friends who lived in “this very cool old house” located “up in the Hollywood Hills on Temple Hill Drive” if they would throw a get-together and let them film it.  Those words were music to my ears!   I immediately started using Google Street View to search Temple Hill Drive for the residence used.  It took me longer to find the place than expected due to the fact that it is situated on a corner and only a side view of it was shown in Swingers.

Very little of the dwelling’s exterior actually appeared in the movie, but, thankfully, enough detailing was visible for me to be able to identify it.

I was most excited to see the staircase that Trent and the guys headed up upon arriving at the party.

A better view of those stairs is pictured below.

Though the outside was only featured briefly in Swingers, the interior of the residence got quite a bit of screen time.  It is while inside the home that Trent gets – and then immediately tears up – the digits of a “business class” girl who touts herself as having a Tina Yothers vibe.

In real life, the 1926 pad boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,872 square feet, and a 0.22-acre plot of land.  As I mentioned above, the residence is situated on a corner.  Pictured below is the side of it that fronts Temple Hill Drive.

The property is absolutely massive, much more so than it appears to be from the street.  You can check out an aerial view of how it’s laid out below.  (The castle-looking estate located next door is known as Moorcrest.  Charlie Chaplin and Mary Astor have both called it home at different points in time and it currently belongs to actor Andy Samberg.  A post on that locale will be coming soon.)

The Swingers party pad has quite the Hollywood pedigree.  As actor/writer Mike White, who was present during the filming of the party scene, explains in the Grantland article, “The house was one of the centers of partying back then.  There were four guys that lived there.  Two of them have gone on to be successful producers — Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen.  Their production company is called Temple Hill [Entertainment], in reference to the house.  They produced all the Twilight movies, actually.”  Godfrey and Bowen also gave us The Fault in Our Stars, Revenge and Rosewood!  Not a bad resume.  I cannot express how cool I find it that the duo chose to name their production company in honor of their former digs.

In his DVD commentary, Favreau described the property as such, “This is one of those big, great 1920s Hollywood Hills houses that sort of has fallen into disrepair, but people, like, all get together and become roommates and live in these huge mansions.”  The residence remains in a state of disrepair today, sadly.  Though I do kind of love the fact that, 20 years later, it still looks like a dwelling that a bunch of showbiz hopefuls got together to rent.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Swingers party house is located at 6161 Temple Hill Drive in the Hollywood Hills.  It is the eastern side of the residence, which can be found on Vasanta Way, that appeared in the movie.

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