Famous Amos Cookies Founder Wally Amos Dies At 88

Wallace “Wally” Amos, the founder of the beloved Famous Amos cookies brand, has passed away after a battle with dementia. The man who satisfied a million sweet teeth was 88 years-old.

Amos Passes Away

Two of his four children confirmed to the New York Times that Amos died on August 13 at his home in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was also survived by his wife Christine Harris Amos, who he was married to for 45 years.

“With his Panama hat, kazoo, and boundless optimism, Famous Amos was a great American success story, and a source of Black pride,” his children told Yahoo News.

They went on to say that their father “inspired a generation of entrepreneurs when he founded the world’s first cookie store” on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1975.

Amos’ History

Born in Tallahassee in 1936, Amos moved to Harlem in his early teenage years to live with his aunt. Amos later left New York when he joined the Air Force in 1954, serving until 1957. During that time, he was stationed in Hawaii, and he fell in love with the state. The success of Famous Amos later allowed him to make Hawaii his home.

Amos was a hard worker. His daughter Sarah remembers her father flying back and forth to the U.S. mainland and taking business calls at 4 a.m.

“It’s hard to run a business and to work with people on the mainland when you’re in Hawaii,” she said. “But he made the sacrifice.”

Before launching Famous Amos, he worked in the talent industry. Amos began in the mailroom at William Morris Agency in 1957 and later worked his way up to becoming the first black talent agent in the industry. Acts that he signed included Simon and Garfunkel and the Supremes.

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Amos Starts Baking – Launches Famous Amos

Amos moved to the west coast in 1967 to start his own talent agency. It was then that he started baking on the side.

“I began to bake as a hobby; it was a kind of therapy,” Amos said in 1975. “I’d go to meetings with a record company or movie people and bring along some cookies, and pretty soon everybody was asking for them.”

He opened Famous Amos Cookie Company in a shop on Sunset Boulevard that same year. The cookies were delicious and quickly became known for their natural ingredients and flavors.

Famous Amos was an immediate hit. The first year, it made $300,000. Within its first five years, the company made $12 million in revenue.

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Amos Loses Famous Amos

Sadly, Amos’ children admit that their father was not the best businessperson. Famous Amos was bought for $3 million in 1988, and it is now owned by the Ferrero Group. In selling Famous Amos, Amos himself lost not only his business, but also his name and likeness.

“The remainder of his life and the remainder of his professional pursuits were attempts to get him to, you know, reclaim that space,” his son Shawn said.

Despite this, Amos continued to bake. He did so under other names like Uncle Noname, Uncle Wally’s Muffin Co., and the Cookie Kahuna.

Amos eventually got over losing Famous Amos, later saying that fame never mattered to him.

“Being famous is highly overrated anyway,” he said in 2007.

That’s not just false modesty, either. Here is Wally in one of his classic get-ups reading to children at Hickam Air Base in Hawaii!

Rest in peace, Wally Amos.