The talent agent who became a cookie icon has died.
Wally “Famous” Amos was 88.
His children said Amos died from complications of dementia at his home in Honolulu on Tuesday, The New York Times reported.
They released a statement calling their father, “a true original Black American hero,” CNN reported. “With his Panama hat, kazoo, and boundless optimism, Famous Amos was a great American success story, and a source of Black pride.”
Amos started his career, not in the cookie business, but instead as a talent agent.
Deadline reported he was born in Florida and moved to New York when he was a teenager where he returned after a stint in the Air Force.
He started in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency and eventually worked his way to being a talent agent, representing acts such as Simon & Garfunkel, The Temptations and Marvin Gaye.
He moved to the West Coast to not only add to his list of stars but to also bake.
Amos, armed with his aunt’s recipe, developed the chocolate chip cookie that he was known for. It had real ingredients, no chemicals or food coloring, the Times reported.
Deadline said he opened his first Famous Amos store on Sunset Boulevard in 1975 with help from a $25,000 loan from Gaye and Helen Reddy.
The first year the store made $300,000 and by 1981, it was a $12 million company with stores across the country and packaged cookies for sale in stores, the Times reported.
His cookies — chocolate chip with peanut butter, chocolate chip with pecans and butterscotch chips with pecans — were all handmade.
“You can’t compare a machine-made cookie with a handmade cookie,” Amos told MSNBC in 2007, the Times reported. “It’s like comparing a Rolls-Royce with a Volkswagen.”
He eventually sold parts of the company off finally selling the remainder to private equity firm the Shansby Group for $3 million in 1988. That equals about $8 million now, the Times reported.
Famous Amos is now owned by Ferrero, which also owns 100 Grand, BabyRuth and Ferrero Rocher among other brands.
Amos was the spokesperson for the company he founded for about a year but left in frustration, embarking on a speaking career, telling people about his store and how to become a success in business. He eventually set up a small cookie shop in Honolulu, with a room dedicated to children’s books. He supported childhood literacy efforts and worked with Literacy Volunteers of America. He also had a public access show in 1987 called “Learn to Read.” In the room at his Hawaii cookie shop, he would read to children every Saturday for hours.
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