When Wally Amos founded Famous Amos cookies in 1975, the brand became one of the most unlikely success stories in food history. And the rise and fall of Wally Amos has become one of his most infamous cautionary tales. Here’s how a man who broke the color barrier in the talent industry and launched a cookie empire helped change American tastes.
Who is Amos famous?
Wally Amos, Jr. was born in Florida in 1936. He moved to Harlem, New York at age 12 to live with his Aunt Della. Amos dropped out of high school, but earned his GED while serving in the Air Force. In 1957, he returned to New York and joined the William Morris agency, where he rose through the mailroom ranks to become the industry’s first black talent agent. Amos ran the rock ‘n’ roll department, where he signed Simon and Garfunkel and worked with Motown megastars The Supremes, Diana Ross, Sam Cooke and Dionne Warwick.
When a new job opportunity in Los Angeles backfired, Amos became disillusioned with show business. He started baking cookies using his Aunt Della’s recipe. “Cookies were a hobby to relieve stress,” says his son Shawn Amos, musician and author of Cookies and milk. Hollywood fashion designers began to take notice: “I would go to meetings with record labels or filmmakers and bring cookies, and soon everyone was asking for them,” Amos said. The New York Times in 1975.
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Wally Amos launched Famous Amos in 1975
Wally Amos, cookie entrepreneur, c. 1994
David L Ryan/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
That year, Amos launched the first Famous Amos store on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. It was an unlikely place to sell cookies: “The east side of Sunset was seedy,” says Shawn. “There were prostitutes. We were in front of a striptease. We have been held up several times. But a few blocks away was the A&M Records loft, where Dad had offices next to Quincy Jones. He saw something. He felt that what he was doing would transcend the neighborhood.
Amos had just gotten a divorce, so his time at the store was his time with his son. “I was standing on crates of milk calling customers,” Shawn explains. “I worked on the front; Dad worked the back. They sold three kinds of cookies by the pound: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Pecan Chip, and Pecan Butter Toffee Chip.
The Famous Amos brand gained backing from celebrity investors like Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy, who gave Amos $25,000 for his new venture. The grand opening was a star-studded gala attended by 1,500 people, though “Famous Amos” was the brand’s true star, appearing on packaging and merchandise in his straw hat and embroidered cotton shirt. Success came quickly: The Famous Amos Cookie Company sold $300,000 worth of cookies in its first year and had $12 million in revenue by 1982. In Wally’s own words, it was “the face that started a thousand tokens.
An unlikely success
“The concept of a preservative-free artisanal cookie was rare,” says Jesse Szewczyk, author of Cookies: the new classics. In the era of mass production, Amos has set her sights on something more upscale than the local supermarket, distributing her cookies at Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. Amos even appeared in Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade from 1977 to 1981. “Amos transformed a product that was considered an everyday item into a gourmet experience, Szewczyk says.
Keeping the “famous” in “Famous Amos,” the entrepreneur made guest appearances on hit TV shows like “The Jeffersons” and “Taxi.” Amos hosted a block party where celebrity guests included Andy Warhol and Muhammad Ali. “Food is part of pop culture, just like fashion,” says Szewczyk.
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The launch of the first premium chocolate chip cookie led to competition, and the rise of brands such as Mrs. Fields’ Original Cookies and premium product lines from Duncan Hines and Nabisco began to eat away at Amos’ market share.
Everything is falling apart
Famous cookies from the Amos brand
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Amos struggled to keep up with the rapid growth of the brand. In 1985 Famous Amos reported a loss of $300,000 on sales of $10 million. “He was not a businessman. He was an incredible marketer and had great promotional instincts. But he made a lot of bad decisions,” his son says.
Amos continued to raise funds while diluting its own equity. At some point he lost his home. In 1985, Amos sold a controlling interest to Bass Brothers Enterprises for $1.1 million. “He sold it to save it,” Shawn says. “He was always impulsive. Many entrepreneurs are. This same spark that can push you to try your luck prevents you from listening to others. You think you are infallible.
Two sales later, the new owners added shelf-stable ingredients and repositioned the cookies as an affordable brand, prompting its famous founder to leave. In 1992, President Baking Company bought Famous Amos for $61 million, more than 55 times what Wally Amos sold his controlling interest a few years earlier.
READ MORE: The Surprising Origin of the Fortune Cookie
What happened to Wally Amos?
That year, Wally Amos launched Wally Amos Presents Hazelnut Cookies. He was soon sued for trademark infringement and banned from using his own name and likeness. He recalled, “I was stupid, pure and simple. I sold the company and didn’t realize I had sold my future with her. Undeterred, he changed the brand name to Uncle Noname. It filed for bankruptcy in 1996.
In 1999, Amos signed a deal with Famous Amos’ new owner, Keebler, to act as their spokesperson. He said yes on the condition that they elaborate the recipe closer to the original. “It was bittersweet,” says his son. “He was happy to be back at the center of the brand he had created, but he also struggled to come to terms with the fact that ultimately he was just a paid spokesperson.”
Amos soon left again, this time for good. He turned to muffins with Uncle Wally’s Muffin Co. and opened a bakery in Hawaii. Amos has written several books about his experiences, including The Man With No Name: Turn Lemons Into Lemonade, The Famous Story of Amos: The Face Who Tossed 1,000 Potato Chips and The power within you. A tireless advocate for literacy, he received a National Literacy Honors Award from President George HW Bush. “As a high school dropout, education was a big deal for him,” says Shawn.
Still an entrepreneur, Amos appeared on “Shark Tank” at age 80 presenting “The Cookie Kahuna,” a venture that ultimately failed. In 2017, he started a GoFundMe announcing he was struggling to pay for food, gas and rent. Yet his legacy as an entrepreneur who breaks down barriers remains. “He’s an eternal hustler,” Shawn says. “Everyone wants the big comeback. It is a story as old as time itself.
