LAist's new podcast LA Made: Blood Sweat & Rockets explores the history of Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Lab, co-founder Jack Parsons' interest in the occult and the creepy local lore of Devil's Gate Dam. Between visits to the rooms of patients (none of whom seem quite sure who the ebullient, kazoo-blowing guy is), Amos takes a pit stop. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. The man who created the Famous Amos cookie empire and eventually lost ownership of the company as well as the rights to use the catchy name is now running a modest cookie shop in Hawaii. How much did Famous Amos sell his company for? - Wise-Answers In 1986, President Reagan presented him with one of the first Awards of Entrepreneurial Excellence. For an entrepreneur who was down on his luck it was almost too good a deal to pass up. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. ", Everywhere he goes, people want to know, did he bring any cookies? Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. He accumulated all his fortune being the founder of the most common cookie brand Amos Cookies. William Morris Co., New York, NY, 195967, began as mail clerk, became executive vice president, talent agent for Simon & Garfunkel, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Dionne Warwick, and Patti LaBelle, among others; entertainment manager, Los Angeles, CA, 197275, clients included Franklin Ajaye, Abby Lincoln, and Oscar Brown Jr.; Famous Amos Cookie Corporation, San Francisco, CA, president, 197585, vice chairman, 198589; Wally Amos Presents Chip & Cookie, president, 199092; Uncle Nonam Cookie Company, Honolulu, HI president, 1993. Except the boy never takes the pillow off his face. He did so on purpose, but rather than stir the fires of racial stereotypes, Amos thoughtfully examined the topic of race and bias, along with many others issues he had come into contact with throughout his life. Kun kytt sivustojamme ja sovelluksiamme, kytmme, tarjotaksemme sivustomme ja sovelluksemme sinulle, todentaaksemme kyttjt, estksemme roskapostia ja vrinkytksi sek toteuttaaksemme tietoturvatoimia. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan formally presented to Wally Amos the President's Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence. Shortly before graduation, Amos dropped out of high school to join the United States Air Force. Mount Prospect, Illinois 60056 "He had a big block party for the opening of the store and every year at Christmas he'd have a big block party," Shawn recalls. [14], In 2020, Content Media Group released a documentary on the life of Wally Amos, The Great Cookie Comeback: reBaking Wally Amos. Baldwin Hills communities began with an Olympic village in 1932 and later became home to affluent Black families in L.A. Your greatest contribution to your country is not your signature straw hat in the Smithsonian, but the people you have inspired to learn to read, Bush said. Unfortunately for Amos, he . But ''it was a shocker at first.'' In 1988 the company lost $2.5 million, and the Shansby Group purchased it for $3 million. Before long, the company had changed ownership four times. Keebler acquired the brand last year, becoming its fifth owner. At one side is a reading room with dozens of donated books and Amos usually spends Saturdays sitting on a rocking chair, wearing a watermelon hop hat, reading to children. He then started another job, in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency, a leading theatrical booking and hiring agency. He lived with an aunt, Della Bryant, who taught him how to make chocolate chip cookies. A Famous Cookie And a Face to Match; How Wally Amos Got His Hand And He reckons Chip & Cookie will shortly be as ubiquitous as the Cabbage Patch Doll was. As Amos celebrated the book's success, his business was losing money. His hat and shirt were added to the Smithsonian Institution's advertising collection. "He worked with all the Motown acts, with the Temptations and Supremes," his son, musician Shawn Amos says. Fax: (856) 342-3878 Having your face or company named after you, you cant take that to the bank. We are very proud of our Famous Amos cookies and believe were producing high-quality, great-tasting product, she said. Amos, who turned 71 this month, is co-founder and shareholder of Uncle Wallys Muffin Co., whose products are found in 5,000 stores nationwide, including Costco and Wal-Mart. Over the next decade, Famous Amos expanded exponentially, growing into an international chain. [5] The company began to expand, and eventually, Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies could be found on supermarket shelves across the United States. was originally published on Amos told Ebony: I began to have enormous success when I started doing things to do them well. Black Enterprise (November 1992): p. 105. What is Wally Amos doing now? - The Billions And what it says about the 'Land Back' movement. Wally Amos, famed entrepreneur and founder of the Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie brand, was born Wallace Amos Jr. on July 1, 1936, in Tallahassee, Florida. I think it's bordering on being fanatical. '', See the article in its original context from. Neither he nor Keebler would disclose how much the company was paying him to bite into Famous Amos cookies in public and urge people who spot him in airports to buy them. . Mr. Amos was hardly in a position to play the tough negotiator. "It's not the same formula. He ultimately lost the company to investors in 1988. In the back of his mind, however, he considered the idea of selling his cookies. By 1988 the company lost $2.5 million. The whole time he's in the men's room, from outside you can hear him humming, whistling and singing. Being famous is highly overrated anyway, said Amos, who has lived in Hawaii since 1977. In 1980, the hat and shirt Wally wore on the early packaging of Famous Amos cookies were placed in the Collection of Advertising History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Amos's fourth book, Watermelon Magic: Seeds of Wisdom, Slices of Life, was published the same year. Leading American Businesses. . With the help of a friend, Mr. Amos eventually got the house back. In the early 1960s Amos took a job in the mail room at the William Morris Talent Agency. "Never been better, man! Encyclopedia.com. Within two years Amos returned to retail marketing based on a chocolate chip theme with his Chip & Cookie concept. P.O. [11] Uncle Noname became Uncle Wally's Muffin Company in 1999. . It was the low point of my life, Amos recalled in Ebony. I'm especially glad that Famous Amos Cookies are now in the hands of people who love, live, and breathe great-tasting cookies." He retained a position on the board of directors but was relieved of day-to-day responsibilities in the company. and bake, and it was she who gave Wally Amos his first chocolate chip cookie. Will Orange County's Fledgling Clean Power Agency Survive? At age 10, Amos began attending a school established in his mother's church. Keebler also gave Amos another gift: the use of his name and face. ''An entrepreneur has an enormously high energy level and has a very low attention span typically,'' said Paul Karofsky, executive director of the Center for Family Business at Northeastern University. But hes hardly struggling. It was bittersweet, says his son. "My dad is a master showman," Shawn says. Contemporary Black Biography. . Check out a post by digital creator, @talk2pops, highlighting Wally Amos story below: What Happened To Wendy Williams? Thanks in part to the success of his cookie company, he was hired to deliver speeches. Amos, Wally and Camilla Denton. The store sells five varieties of bite-sized cookies for $9.89 a pound, similar to the ones he first sold at the Famous Amos store in Hollywood 30 years ago. In April 2019, its current owner, Kellogg Company, announced plans to sell Famous Amos, the Keebler brand and its fruit snacks business to Ferrero for $1.4 million. . "Crack Reporter Brings Famous Amos to His Knees." Money was so scarce for him and his family that he often had to walk four miles to and from school to save the bus fare. In 1992, President Baking Company bought Famous Amos for $61 millionmore than 55 times what Wally Amos sold his controlling stake for just a few years earlier. Net Worth of Wally Amos, The Man Who Lost His Cookie Empire . He was living close by in Hollywood and he was starving. He was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, until he was 12 years old. 6 Millionaires Who Lost It All, but Came Back | Kiplinger I realized that I could still be in the same situation 10 years from then., Amos borrowed $25,000 from Marvin Gaye, Helen Reddy and her husband Jeff Wald, and United Artists Records president Artie Mogull. an agent and by 1974, he was looking for something new. (Photo of Wally Amos courtesy of Shawn Amos; photo collage by Elina Shatkin). [18], Amos had lived in Hawaii from 1977 until 2018. He opened a small shop on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, and began making mass quantities with the same recipe hed used in his own kitchen. degree. Amos ultimately advanced to the position of a full-time William Morris talent agent where he contributed to the careers of such entertainers as Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Diana Ross, Sam Cooke, and Marvin Gaye. In 1992, President Baking Company bought Famous Amos for $61 millionmore than 55 times what Wally Amos sold his controlling stake for just a few years earlier. Keeping the famous in Famous Amos, the entrepreneur made guest appearances on hit TV shows like The Jeffersons and Taxi. Reality was starting to catch up, wrote Michael Ryan in Parade. A Famous Cookie And a Face to Match; How Wally Amos Got His Hand And His Name Back in the Game, https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/03/business/famous-cookie-face-match-wally-amos-got-his-hand-his-name-back-game.html. The move proved to be a mistake, as the new owners began to run the company into the ground. Culinary entrepreneur Wally Amos stands in front of the original Famous Amos store on Sunset Blvd. In financial terms, Wally wrote in 1996, all Ive done since is amass debt and miss payments.. Leading American Businesses. How much did Wally Amos sell his company for? Kellogg Company. At the time, Mr. Amos challenged the barriers of entertainment as a Black man and went on to create a flourishing cookie empire. Public Company Famous Amos eventually became a household name, as did Wally Amos. Most of the dedicated Famous Amos shops were shuttered. Famous Amos was the real star of the brand, appearing on packaging and merchandise in his signature straw hat and embroidered cotton shirt. He and Andy would sign autographs. The Famous Amos Cookie Company was born. And with his Keebler deal, Mr. Amos is back on the promotional circuit. His rise serves as the most infamous cautionary tale for aspiring entrepreneurs. It honors a cookie. I'm not in the cookie business anymore.". Without its founder, the Famous Amos Cookie Company went in a new directionit stopped producing upscale cookies in competition with gourmet brands and instead went down-market to compete with standard, grocery store cookies. ." Having launched a modest cookie-making venture in Hawaii, Amos was legally forbidden to use his own name, the Famous Amos tag, or his likeness, to describe any of his future endeavors. He also worked as a talent agent and discovered Simon & Garfunkel. "Workshop to Feature Famous Amos Founder." He had no money to advertise, so he became the new company's showman, passing cookies out on the streets, delivering them to friends, and taking them everywhere he went. Famous Amos was bought by Keebler Foods in 1998, which pleased Amos. "Not just once" -says Amos, grinning and pausing to clap his hands sharply twice -"but two times! "I started looking through that directory for a name that just might have $10,000 next it. [13], In 2019, Amos was called "the King of cookies" by NBC affiliate KSNV-TV in Las Vegas. When you were born or when you died is not nearly as important as what you did in betweenwhat you put in that dash. "In the lower right hand corner there was a William Morris logo, and in the other corner was an A&M Records logo that showed that the cookie had a record deal. While Famous Amos soon lived up to its name, thriving for nearly a decade, the company's founder lost control of his business. Although Wally Amos was introduced to chocolate chip cookies by his Aunt Delia and her old-fashioned recipe, when Amos started his own business he used a recipe by Ruth Wakefield, who is credited with inventing chocolate chip cookies at her Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, in the 1930s. Famous Amos: The Rise and Fall of a Cookie Empire - HISTORY Selected awards: Presidential Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, U.S. president Ronald Reagan, 1986; Horatio Alger Association citation, 1987. Hollywood tastemakers began to take notice: Id go to meetings with record company or movie people and bring along some cookies, and pretty soon everybody was asking for them, Amos told The New York Times in 1975. Did Shark Tank have Crumble cookies? Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. All Rights Reserved. With hard work and easy charisma, Amos worked his way into a role as a talent scout with William Morris Agency. Famous Amos - Wikipedia As an article in Current Biography Yearbook, states: "In the process of promoting his client, whether an entertainer, or a cookie, Amos himself became a star of sorts on the American scene.". Franchises followed. Web site: http://www.saltoninc.com ''We can dramatically increase distribution of the brand and that is everything from building its presence in convenience stores, mass merchandisers, obviously grocery stores and drugstores,'' Mr. Grieve of Keebler said. His mother, especially, was an uncompromising disciplinarian. Amos hit a plateau working for the William Morris Agency and decided to strike out on his own. U.S.A. In 1986, Amos was given an Entrepreneurial Excellence Award by President Ronald Reagan (1911-) in appreciation of his remarkable American success story. This page was last edited on 10 February 2023, at 22:25. Wally later made a comeback in the world of cookies under a new name, The Cookie Kahuna, in 2014.