Rick is pictured here at the Palm Springs home of Elvis Presley. Rick is a veteran of over 2,000 tours of Palm Springs Celebrity homes.

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A native Californian born in Long Beach, California, Rick has spent most of his life here in the desert between Palmdale in the north and Borrego Springs in the south, and for decades has considered Palm Springs to be his home. “Doing tours of movie star and television star’s homes is a wonderful job”, says Rick, “and working for Celebrity Tours is a dream come true”.

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Rick has been fortunate to meet many celebrities in his life, including a long-time Hollywood movie star and full time Palm Springs resident he met in 2022; you’ll have to ask Rick to find out who that star is.

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Rick is happily married to his wife, Maylene, and they have 2 kids and 5 grandkids. Rick and Maylene live near downtown Palm Springs so they enjoy the ambiance and culture of the rich movie star history here in town every day. Says Rick, “I grew up in the desert and I appreciate the beauty and the weather of the Coachella Valley, and I love to have tourists experience that with me all year long.”

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Rick shares with all his tour guests the rich history of Palm Springs, facts about the nearly windmill farms, the local Native American history, and he draws on his lifelong interest in architecture to explore Mid-Century Modernism homes for tour guests—“Palm Springs is the Modernism architectural capital of the world” says Rick, and many of the celebrity homes are also examples of spectacular Modernism architecture. Take a quick-wit sense of humor and blend that with countless stories about the movie stars and their careers at dozens of their homes along the route, and you have Rick. Ride along with him as he takes you up close and personal to the doorsteps of Hollywood’s biggest star’s Palm Springs homes for an unforgettable experience.

Originally from the Chicago suburbs, Dave embodies a down to earth Midwestern style and work ethic. A fan of cinema, his tours incorporate "behind the scenes" stories about the celebs and their homes and desert lifestyle.

Dave loves to research (which he calls his "mining expeditions”). When he finds the nuggets, he weaves them into his tours to create humor, surprise, delight and wonder for his guests. He has a deep knowledge of our local architecture, history, climate, geography and the native people who settled here centuries ago.

In his spare time, Dave plays guitar, swims, rides his bike and explores restaurants in the area (ask him for rec's!). He and his wife also enjoy visiting their kids and grandkids on the Southern California coast

If the intersection of Golden Age Hollywood and Palm Springs history is your jam, then Philip is your man.  Creator, sole operator and performer of the award winning Felix In Hollywood Tour Company for a dozen years, this Entertainment Industry historian now happily calls Palm Springs his home.  “In researching Hollywood History for over 25 years, I kept seeing an overlap with Palm Springs.  In the classic era movie years of the ‘30s, 40s and 50s, as well as the golden era of television of the 50s, 60s and 70s, it sometimes feels like everyone from Hollywood had second homes in Palm Springs or at least spent a lot of visiting time here.  That combined with the incredibly rich history of the City of Palm Springs itself, makes for a fascinating tour that I can’t wait to tell you about!”

Mershon also spent 20+ years working in Hollywood doing production and costuming work and considers himself lucky to have been able to work with, among others, Rodney Dangerfield, Jeff Goldblum, Sandra Bullock, Forest Whitaker, Bill Murray, Angela Bassett, Cindy Williams, Eric Roberts, Debi Mazar, David Straithern, Ben Stiller, Amy Madigan, Judd Apatow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Flea, Susan Anton, Micky Dolenz, Beverly D’Angelo, David Cassidy, Mare Winningham, Rip Torn, Elle Macpherson, Joe Montegna, Madonna, Robert Culp, Marissa Tomei, Paul McCartney, Don Cheadle, Ann Meara, James Doohan, Adam West, Sherman Hemsley, Fred Willard, Isabel Sanford, Beau Bridges, as well as legendary names like Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, Jackie Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Cyd Charisse, Ann-Margret and Burt Reynolds. 

John Stark has been doing tours since he moved to Palm Springs in 2018. He is a veteran
journalist who spent 10 years as a Senior Writer at People magazine in New York. Before that,
he was a movie critic and feature writer at the San Francisco Examiner. He knows his stars and
has stories, from Lucille Ball to Frank Sinatra. He is passionate about mid-century architecture
and has written extensively about it. He has even interviewed Hugh Kaptur, the last living post-
World War II modernist. A history buff, John can tell you about our colorful past and our bigger-
than-life pioneers. He grew up in a and has fond memories of family outings in the desert and
the Salton Sea. “I enjoy showing people Palm Springs,” he says. “No place like it.”