Family, friends, and lovers of sweet treats worldwide are remembering Wallace Amos, best known as “Wally” Amos, or “Famous Amos.”
The cookie connoisseur opened his first chocolate chip shop on Sunset Boulevard in 1975. Loved by celebrities, and even presidents, those tasty treats became a nationwide hit.
Wally Amos is surrounded by his family. Photo courtesy of Shawn Amos.
Before then, he was the first Black agent to work at the William Morris Agency. But he eventually gave that up due to racist managers.
“He quit because he was next in line to be head of the music department, and the powers that be didn't think that a Black guy in charge would be so cool, " says his son Shawn Amos.
Wally Amos embraces his son Shawn Amos. Photo courtesy of Shawn Amos.
The entrepreneur started his own management company, where he met celebrities of all kinds. To give him a bit of leg up in pitch meetings, Amos offered his guest homemade cookies.
“I remember making cookies with him in the kitchen,” his son recalls.
“He would do it as a hobby. Some other dads sat and watched football. He went into the kitchen and baked cookies.”
The “Famous Amos” brand expanded from one store in LA to dozens nationwide, and sold packaged sweets in grocery stores. However, Amos struggled to keep up with the brand’s growth, and around the early 1990s, he sold it to a foreign company.
Amos spent his last years suffering from dementia, then passed away at his home in Hawaii.
“You go through this elongated sadness when someone is fading away like that. And then it finally fades to black. So we're all saying goodbye for real now,” says the younger Amos.
“He had this audacious joy. He was just stubbornly optimistic. I think that’s what attracted so many people to him. He was just this eternal optimist, and really believed in the power of fun and the power of joy along with the power of hard work.”