Wallace “Wally” Amos, the creator of the cookie empire that took his title and made it well-known and who went on to grow to be a youngsters’s literacy advocate, has died. He was 88.
Amos created the Well-known Amos cookie empire and ultimately misplaced possession of the corporate — in addition to the rights to make use of the catchy Amos title. In his later years, he turned a proprietor of a cookie store referred to as Chip & Cookie in Hawaii, the place he moved in 1977.
He died Tuesday at his residence in Honolulu, along with his spouse, Carol, at his aspect, his youngsters stated. He died from problems with dementia, they stated.
“With his Panama hat, kazoo, and boundless optimism, Famous Amos was a great American success story, and a source of Black pride,” stated a press release from his youngsters, Sarah, Michael, Gregory and Shawn Amos.
He was married six instances to 5 ladies, son Shawn stated, explaining that he and Carol had break up up, reacquainted after which remarried.
“He loved love,” Sarah Amos stated.
They stated their dad “inspired a generation of entrepreneurs when he founded the world’s first cookie store” on Sundown Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1975.
He had been stationed in Hawaii with the Air Power, and Well-known Amos gave him the means to later make it his residence.
Sarah Amos, who was born in Hawaii, remembers her dad flying forwards and backwards to the U.S. mainland and taking enterprise calls at 4 a.m.
“It’s hard to run a business and to work with people on the mainland when you’re in Hawaii,” she stated. “But he made the sacrifice.”
Whereas Wally Amos was a terrific promotor, he struggled as a businessperson and ultimately misplaced management of the corporate. He walked away from it as a result of he didn’t need to simply be its face, Sarah Amos stated.
Later dropping the enterprise and the suitable to make use of his title was deeply painful and private, Shawn Amos stated: “The remainder of his life and the remainder of his professional pursuits were attempts to get him to, you know, reclaim that space.”
Wally Amos was additionally co-founder of Uncle Wally’s Muffin Co., whose merchandise are present in shops nationwide. However Amos stated the celebrity by no means actually mattered a lot to him.
“Being famous is highly overrated anyway,” Amos instructed The Related Press in 2007.
His muffin firm, based mostly in Shirley, N.Y., was initially based as Uncle Noname Cookie Co. in 1992, a number of years after Amos misplaced Well-known Amos, which nonetheless extensively makes use of his title on its merchandise.
Amos had stated the Well-known Amos cookies bought at this time are in contrast to his cookies, which had plenty of chocolate, actual butter and pure vanilla extract.
“You can’t compare a machine-made cookie with handmade cookie,” he instructed the AP. “It’s like comparing a Rolls Royce with a Volkswagen.”
Uncle Noname, nonetheless, foundered due to debt and issues with its contracted producers.
The corporate filed for chapter in 1996, deserted cookies and went into muffins on the suggestion of Amos’ enterprise accomplice, Lou Avignone.
Inside his now-shuttered Hawaii cookie store, he bought bite-sized cookies much like those he first bought on the Well-known Amos Hollywood retailer.
Amos additionally was energetic in selling studying. His store, for instance, had a studying room with dozens of donated books, and Amos often spent Saturdays sitting on a rocking chair, sporting a watermelon hat, studying to youngsters.
Sarah Amos recalled him studying to youngsters at Hanahauʻoli Faculty and persevering with to take action even after she graduated from the small elementary faculty.
The previous highschool dropout penned eight books, served as spokesperson for Literacy Volunteers of America for twenty-four years and gave motivational talks to firms, universities and different teams.
Amos earned quite a few honors for his volunteerism, together with the Literacy Award offered by President George H.W. Bush in 1991.
“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 stated.
In one in every of his books, “Man With No Name: Turn Lemons Into Lemonade,” Amos defined how he misplaced Well-known Amos even earlier than it was bought for $63 million to a Taiwanese firm in 1991. Regardless of sturdy gross sales, by 1985, the enterprise was dropping cash, so Amos introduced in outdoors traders.
“The new owners gobbled up more of my share until all of a sudden, I found I had lost all ownership in the company I founded,” Amos wrote. Earlier than lengthy, the corporate had modified possession 4 instances.
Sarah Amos stated that after parting methods with Well-known Amos, he stopped baking for about two years. After rediscovering a love of baking, he launched the Hawaii enterprise, Chip & Cookie, in 1991.
Born in Tallahassee, Florida, Amos moved to New York Metropolis at age 12 due to his mother and father’ divorce. He lived with an aunt, Della Bryant, who taught him the way to make chocolate chip cookies.
He later dropped out of highschool to hitch the Air Power earlier than working as a mailroom clerk on the William Morris Company, the place he turned a expertise agent, working with The Supremes, Simon & Garfunkel and Marvin Gaye earlier than borrowing $25,000 to launch his cookie enterprise.
He was the primary Black agent within the enterprise, Shawn Amos, stated.
Shawn and Sarah stated that after changing into mother and father themselves, they realized how significant the chocolate chip cookie is to their household.
“The first time we made cookies with our kids, it sort of sunk in, this is actually a family thing,” Shawn stated. “It’s a gift he gave us. It’s part of our heritage.”
