Wallace “Wally” Amos Jr. founded the “Famous Amos” cookies, which gained nationwide recognition. Amos, who passed away at age 88 on Tuesday, built his brand from a single outlet in Los Angeles and a family recipe.
After losing ownership of the company, he later became the proprietor of a cookie shop called Chip & Cookie in Hawaii, where he relocated to in 1977. He would subsequently co-found Uncle Wally’s Muffin Co., whose products are found in stores nationwide, according to the Associated Press.
However, Amos said he did not allow the fame to get into him. “Being famous is highly overrated anyway,” Amos told The Associated Press in 2007.
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Uncle Wally’s Muffin Co. was originally founded as Uncle Noname Cookie Co. in 1992., a few years after Amos lost Famous Amos, which still widely uses his name on its products. He told AP in an interview that the Famous Amos cookies sold today are not like his cookies, which had lots of chocolate, real butter, and pure vanilla extract.
“You can’t compare a machine-made cookie with handmade cookie,” he told the AP. “It’s like comparing a Rolls Royce with a Volkswagen.”
However, Uncle Noname plunged because of debt and problems with its contracted manufacturers. The business filed for bankruptcy in 1996 and started making muffins instead of cookies at the suggestion of Amos’ business partner, Lou Avignone.
Aside from entrepreneurship, he was active in promoting reading. His cookie shop had a reading room with donated books. Children came to the shop on Saturdays and he read to them while sitting on a rocking chair, wearing a watermelon hat. A former high school dropout, Amos penned eight books and served as spokesperson for Literacy Volunteers of America for 24 years.
He also gave motivational talks to corporations, universities, and other groups. He received several awards, including the Literacy Award presented by President George H.W. Bush in 1991.
“Your greatest contribution to your country is not your signature straw hat in the Smithsonian, but the people you have inspired to learn to read,” Bush said.
Born in Tallahassee, Florida, Amos lived with an aunt, Della Bryant, in New York City after moving there at age 12 because of his parents’ divorce. He learned how to make chocolate chip cookies from his aunt.
He stopped schooling while in high school to join the Air Force before working as a mailroom clerk at the William Morris Agency. There, he served as a talent agent, working with The Supremes, Simon & Garfunkel, and Marvin Gaye before borrowing $25,000 to launch his cookie business.
His cookies were all handmade. From a single store in Los Angeles, he made $300,000 in revenue in his first year. By 1981, the company was worth $12 million with several Famous Amos stores across the country plus products sold in supermarkets and department stores.
He also became a household name in the U.S., appearing on the cover of Time and in sitcoms like “The Jeffersons,” “Taxi” and “The Office.” However, he struggled financially as his company grew so he sold off equity shares in the company throughout the 1980s, becoming a minority stakeholder. By 1988, he had sold his remaining stake in Famous Amos to a private equity firm, the Shansby Group, for $3 million.
The brand is now owned by the Italy-based food and candy giant Ferrero Group. Kellogg sold its Keebler, Famous Amos and fruit snacks units to Ferrero in a deal worth between $1 billion and $1.5 billion in 2019.
“I’d lost the company really because I didn’t use to listen to people a lot because I was Famous Amos,” Amos told The Times in 1999. “The first couple of years after I left Famous Amos, I didn’t even make cookies anymore, and I used to always make cookies at home. I didn’t even want to talk about chocolate chip cookies, really. I shaved my beard and stopped wearing hats.”
Amos died peacefully at his home in Honolulu with his wife Carol by his side after a battle with dementia, his family said in a statement. He was married six times to five women.
“Our dad inspired a generation of entrepreneurs,” his children said, adding, “With his Panama hat, kazoo, and boundless optimism, Famous Amos was a great American success story, and a source of Black pride. It’s also part of our family story for which we will forever be grateful and proud.”
