The founder of the popular chocolate chip cookie brand Famous Amos cookies died Tuesday at age 88.
Wallace “Wally” Amos died at his home in Honolulu due to complications from dementia, his children told the New York Times.
Amos turned his hobby of baking bite-sized cookies while working as a talent agent for the stars into the hugely successful brand in 1975 when he opened up his Famous Amos cookie shop on Sunset Boulevard with a $25,000 loan from the likes of Marvin Gaye and other Hollywood pals.
The lifelong entrepreneur, who no longer owned the well-known brand, learned the recipe for his baked goods from his aunt in Harlem. He moved from Tallahassee, Florida, to New York City to live with her when he was 12 years old following his parents’ divorce, according to History.
His aunt inspired him to pursue a culinary career, and he attended the Food Trades Vocational High School in Manhattan before dropping out to join the Air Force.
After four years of service in Hawaii, Amos returned to the Big Apple and was hired in the mail room of the prestigious William Morris talent agency. He worked his way up the ranks and was promoted to junior agent in 1961 — the first black person to earn the title at the company, History reported.
It was in that role that he befriended Gaye and other famous musicians of the time — and signed talents like Simon and Garfunkel.
Eventually, Amos moved across the country to Los Angeles, where he started his own talent agency. He baked cookies in his free time as a stress reliever and would bring in the treats to meetings with clients and film shoots.
“I began to bake as a hobby; it was a kind of therapy,” Amos told Times in 1975. “I’d go to meetings with record companies or movie people and bring along some cookies, and pretty soon everybody was asking for them.”
His cookies were a hit, and he decided to make his hobby his career with the opening of his Sunset Boulevard bakery which quickly stood out among shops selling cookies full of added preservatives and artificial additives.
Amos’ store made $300,000 in revenue in its first year and became a $12 million company by 1981, as dozens of new locations opened and his cookies were packaged and sold at retailers across the country, according to History.
As the success of his Famous Amos cookies grew, Amos himself became somewhat of a pop culture icon known for donning a big grin and a Panama hat. He would have guest appearances in TV shows like “The Jeffersons,” “Taxi” and, later, “The Office.”
But he struggled to keep up with the company’s finances as it grew and by 1988 had sold off his ownership of and equity in the company.
In the years following, he worked as a motivational speaker and author sharing his self-made story while advocating for black entrepreneurs as well as childhood literacy, according to the Times.
He returned to cookie-making and launched multiple other brands throughout his lifetime and even opened a small bakery in Honolulu, which had a separate library of children’s books where he would read to neighborhood kids for hours every Saturday, the newspaper reported.
He is survived by his fourth wife Carol Williams, four children — Shawn, Sarah, Michael and Gregory — seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.