The Felix In Hollywood Tour Company

This tour is totally worth it. You get a blow by blow, building by building history of a six block area of Hollywood where the film industry began, and continues to thrive. Philip, your host, is super. I took a group of college film students. They were all totally engaged and inspired.

We can’t say enough great things about the walking tour and our guide, Philip. This man knows every fun historical tidbit you could want to know about Hollywood and the way it came to be the town it is today. Honestly, it was so good we could have taken Philip to a bar afterwards and asked him 100 more questions about all the information he just provided us with if he would have let us! I was initially intrigued to take the tour because of the great reviews that mentioned how locals loved it. My expectations were exceeded immensely! I feel like I actually understand how the town of Hollywood formed thanks to Philip. Trust me, I’ve taken the crappy hop on-​hop off tour buses and I promise you that you will learn more in your 2 hours with Philip than you could ever see/​hear on two days of hopping on and off the tour bus. TAKE THIS TOUR! You will not regret it! The reviews are great for a reason! Thanks Philip and Felix in Hollywood Tours!

What a great tour! I am not one for doing the «touristy» things when visiting a city, and the walk around Hollywood with our guide Phil was anything but. If you have any interest at all in the history of the entertainment industry here, do yourself a favor and have Phil show you around. Incredibly informative and entertaining!

We had a great time on the tour. Philip was kind enough to do the tour even though it was just the two of us on a weekday — so we got lots of personal attention! Philip is an encylopedia of knowledge — in a good, entertaining way. He takes you through a history of old Hollywood and tells you lots of amazing things that happened that should be advertised by Hollywood but aren’t. This is a great tour for locals and visitors.

What an awesome walking tour! Phillip is knowledgeable, entertaining and charming. He has a witty delivery and knows how to keep his guests engaged in the conversation. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and I would definitely recommend it, especially for locals.

Me and my aunt did this tour today on a whim and it was so worth it! Phillip (the tour guide) was incredibly knowledgeable, but more importantly enthusiastic on the subject. You will cover an incredible span of time and information, but he makes it very easy to grasp. I noticed a few comments that he is a little less than friendly, and discourages questions, but I found him very nice and friendly! It was just me and my aunt on the tour, so it was great to get a personal tour of the area! He did start with a disclaimer to leave questions until the end, it seems that its not so much that he discourages them, but that he has so much enthusiasm and knowledge that one turn onto a tangent and he may never come back to the point! I would recommend maybe jotting down questions in your phone or on paper as they come so you don’t forget them after, maybe just let him know this at the beginning. All in all I found the tour not only informative but also fun, and our guide qualified and friendly. If you’re thinking about taking this tour, do it, you wont regret it!

Man, Felix really knows his stuff. I can’t tell you too much about the tour because he wants to preserve the mystery. I will say that it is worth the money and by the time you walk away, you’ll know more about and seen more of old Hollywood than you ever have before. I was the only one on my tour, so I got an exclusive one-​on-​one visit with plenty of time for questions.

I am a college professor and take about 10 students to Hollywood each year to learn about media history. We’ve done this tour both times and it is not only historically informative but interesting. I was concerned that my students would get tired on a walking tour and bored but they loved it. He does a great job of mixing location specific information with stories and anecdotes. Well worth the money and highly recommended!

Myself and my Dad recently enjoyed this tour very much. Philip clearly enjoys sharing his vast knowledge of Hollywood history. He gets you hooked right way, and keeps it relevant and interesting the whole time. While you could do you own internet research into all the topics he covers, you will not get anywhere near the experience of learning the history that is right in front of you presented by someone like Philip. It’s unique, one of a kind, and fascinating. We both highly recommend his tour.

Felix’s tour is absolutely phenomenal. If you want to know about the history of the Hollywood system and have no idea who Harry Cohn, Frank Capra, Louis B. Mayer, Rita Hayworth, Sam Katzman, etc. etc. are OR even if you think you know who they are, think again. Felix shows you the sacred area of where those amazing filmmakers started Hollywood and he provides captivating stories about their work. He is enthusiastic, kind, and very knowledgeable. I can’t speak highly enough about him. This IS not a cheesy tour of stars rather let him taking you on an academic, fun, and interesting glimpse of the home of filmmaking.

As a movie person and recent Los Angeles transplants, I think this tour is a great way to get your head around this city. You learn a lot about how the city and how the entertainment industry developed in Hollywood. The tour guide is quirky and passionate. BONUS — What you learned on the tour might make you most interesting person in the room at the next party you go to ;o)

I surprised my boyfriend for his birthday with this tour. He LOVES Los Angeles and is a total history buff/​nerd so this tour was the perfect fit. Lucky for us the day we went we were the only ones on the tour. Philip was so nice, funny and really knew how to entertain and captivate our attention as a tour guide. We are both in the entertainment industry so hearing all these fun little insights into old school Hollywood was a delight. Every time I pass by this area now I think of all the little random awesome facts that I learned from this tour.
Definitely not you’re typical Hollywood tour. You will not be checking out celebrity mansions and trying to snap a picture of them but thats the best part. If you are a local or unique and like to find fun, funky new things to do this is the tour for you.

Also known as Philip Merson’s Felix in Hollywood Walking Tour, the amount of work that went into the history of this tour is amazing!!! He tells you straight off that this is not your normal schmuck-​walking-​you-​around-​pointing-​out-​the-​obvious tour. He goes in-​depth to the early history of the area, including how Hollywood got its name and continues by spinning a yarn about the advent of the entire industry in the L.A. area and how it evolved – right there under your feet!
Now, if you don’t like history lessons, then you probably won’t enjoy this tour. But if you like knowing the roots, then you’ll LOVE this tour.

This is easily the most interesting «Hollywood» tour in L.A.

Finally– a Hollywood tour that amazed me. I will never walk the streets the same way again. I’ve been a Los Angeles resident all my life– but now I feel more connected to the city that I love and work in. This is all thanks to Phillip and his tour.
I hold my breath before I take my mother to, well, anything– and she loved the tour even more then I did.
I highly recommend you take this tour. Don’t gamble and spend money on no-​name white van tour– walk the streets with Phillip and see actual Hollywood.

This is the ultimate movie/​TV/​music/​radio lover’s tour. I say that because so many tours in Hollywood emphasize just the movie industry (or, embarrassingly, the «entertainment industry» in the form of celebrity gossip, home-​stalking, and other generally annoying behaviors that are included in the price of fame) where Philip clearly loves and appreciates the rich history of this town… you’ll find no mention of any Kardashian, Hilton, or Lohan on this tour.
The Felix in Hollywood tour is a wonderful trip to the early days of Hollywood, and basically brings you to the birthplace of many of this city’s contributions across film, television, radio, and music. Recently named the «Best Hollywood Walking Tour» by LA Weekly in what’s an admittedly arbitrary list (which includes categories like «Best Bizarro Drunken Tour Bus Event Thingie»), this little gem caught my eye in the 2012 Best Of section when trying to plan out an itinerary for some friends visiting from outside the country.
It’s a short tour, covering a half-​mile block of Sunset, and takes only an hour and a half to complete. You’ll be blown away by how much of the industry Philip knows, across all the forms of entertainment that Hollywood has produced, and just how much activity has gone on in this small space of land over the last 100 years. I would love to see this tour expanded to cover other areas — maybe hop on the Metro to go up to Hollywood & Highland and cover history that you won’t get on one of those Starline tours. At any rate, this is a slice of Hollywood that Philip does, and he does incredibly well!

Recently did this tour and have to say I was a little disappointed.
The information on the tour itself was very interesting and I really enjoyed learning about the studios and the start of Hollywood. The tour guide obviously knows the area and the history very well, which was impressive.
However, the tour guide himself was less than friendly. He was snappish with several of us who had questions to the point where people on the tour would just look at each other with that look of ‘geez, rude much?’ The part that made it especially annoying is that he’d start to walk away from a building so you’d think he was done with the information and then you’d go to ask a question and he’d snap at you that he’ll get to that. I think it’s a normal assumption that if you are walking away from a building that he’s done with his presentation, but apparently not.
Honestly, I make a lot of presentations and I understand wanting people to wait to ask questions til the end of the tour. However, you should always state that up front so people know to wait til the end to ask questions. Either that or just be polite about it when you tell people to be patient. He did neither, which is a shame cuz if he did I think this tour could actually be a fabulous experience as everything else about it was great.

I’m so glad we joined the tour. We learned so many interesting facts that inspired us to even read up a little more on Hollywood’s history when we got home. Phil is an amazing tour guide who really knows his stuff and is not just a robotic scripted guide. His tour is a definite recommendation if you want to take a nice walk and learn about how show business in LA got started. I really like how he limits the group sizes to keep them intimate and so everyone has a chance to hear /​ask questions.
Really great experience– who would have thought– on Sunset Blvd.

This is by far the best tour — and possibly the ONLY tour — that focuses on how the Hollywood film industry was founded. It’s a fascinating clinic on film history that uses the actual locations as its classroom.
I’m a filmmaker with two Hollywood history documentaries under my belt, and I can vouch for ‘Felix’ the tour guide as a truthful historian who cares about getting the facts straight. He isn’t reciting some canned speech that a corporate tour company has made him memorize; he’s the researcher and he’s verified every fascinating detail himself.
When I heard that the walking tour focused on just a ½-​mile section of Sunset Blvd and that this small area was ground-​zero for the birth of the Hollywood film industry, I thought it was exaggeration; IT WAS NOT. I am shocked by how much happened on just a few city blocks in the heart of Hollywood.
If you’re looking to avoid the typical tabloid tours, and want a unique and «true» tour of Hollywood history, you’ll do no better than Felix in Hollywood.

So, you want to do a tour, but you don’t want to be seated and photograph celebrities’ hedges? Well, first of all, that’s great! *high five* Secondly, you’ve come to the right place. I want to say something else before I continue, though. This is a very specific, niche kind of tour, and I’d say it’s not for everyone. (those double decker tours aren’t popular for nothing, you know)
If you want to hear charming stories about the first 100 years of what we now call Hollywood, come see Felix (whose real name is Philip, but you may use either name).
If you want to walk down the street and find out that the «insignificant» building you passed was an integral part of movie history, come see Felix.
If you want a personal experience with a small group, come see Felix.
If you actually live here and want to learn some history, come see Felix. This is supported by the fact that I was the only out of towner in our small group of four.
What he provides, is an intimate experience and a broad stream of facts, stories, and «bet you didn’t know that!» moments. He does not show you where J-​Lo lives. He does not show you where [insert random celebrity] got a DUI charge. Since he deals mostly with the early history of Hollywood, he might name names you haven’t heard of. He carries a simple laminated book of photos and scans that he uses for some before and after comparisons and illustration. I implore you, please don’t let any of this be a deterrent. Call him up, look for the man with the Felix the Cat button, and get an experience that feeds your curiosity.
I really loved the entirety of the tour, which takes about 90 minutes and covers about a mile’s worth of ground. I learned quite a bit, and no, I won’t share. He has what he likes to call «WSPB» moments – we should probably bow. They don’t disappoint, as they are the «bet you didn’t know that!» moments I mentioned earlier.
I think what he conveys the best, is how something so small became something so big, and how something that had such a modest beginning was still a powerhouse – regardless of the time period.
I hope he has continued success, and I’m really glad to spread the word.