Peaches Jackson

Biography

Although her younger sister Mary Ann is more famous, having been a popular early member of the Our Gang (1922) comedy shorts, that might not have been true in Hawaii. In the mid-1930s, Peaches met and married Hawaiian-born "Tony Guerrero." It is unclear whether Peaches went to Honolulu as a showgirl with a revue and there met local "beach boy" Guerrero, or if he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1930s and met her there. However they met, they married and settled down in Los Angeles and opened a restaurant called "The Hawaiian Hut." It became very successful, but by the end of the decade, her life changed in a big way. She had left show business after her marriage to work in the restaurant, and although even Tony had managed a few bit parts in films in his spare time, most notably in an uncredited minor role in the Spencer Tracy film Northwest Passage (1940), by the time that movie was released, the pair moved to Honolulu and opened a restaurant there in the heart of Waikiki Beach. They called it "The Tropics" and it became an Hawaiian institution over the years, very popular with many Hollywood movie stars. It was eventually renamed The World Famous Tropics at Waikiki and in 1952, the couple went to Paris to study at the Cordon Bleu, opening a second restaurant upon their return to Hawaii, the Tropics Ala Moana. This restaurant was as successful as the Tropics and the special house dressing became so much in demand that it was eventually bottled and to this day, Tropics Salad Dressings are popular on the West Coast and of course, in Hawaii, where they are made. They are also available online. Tony died in 1985 and Peaches in 2002, having lived a long and happy life together outside of show business.