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How Did Wally Amos, Founder of Famous Amos Cookies, Make His Mark in the Music Industry?

Last Modified Date: March 21, 2024

Understandably, most of us associate Wally Amos with the Famous Amos cookie brand that bears his name. He launched the first Famous Amos store in Los Angeles in 1975. Although he ultimately sold his stake in the business, Famous Amos cookies are still a mainstay on supermarket shelves. Yet what many people don’t realize is that Wally Amos also made significant contributions to the music industry.

After a stint in the U.S. Air Force in the mid-1950s, Wally Amos earned a secretarial degree and secured a job as a mailroom clerk at the William Morris Agency, the iconic Hollywood talent agency. By 1962, Amos had been promoted out of the mailroom. He became the company's first African-American talent agent and headed the agency's rock ‘n’ roll department. During this time, he signed Simon & Garfunkel and reportedly worked with Diana Ross, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, and Dionne Warwick.

Before launching the first Famous Amos cookie store in 1975, Wally Amos was a talent agent who signed Simon & Garfunkel and worked with Diana Ross, Sam Cooke, and Marvin Gaye.

His unique style of attracting clients revealed his true passion: baking cookies. Inspired by childhood memories of baking with his Aunt Della, Amos developed his own chocolate chip cookie recipe. He would send cookies to musicians to encourage them to meet with him at the agency.

However, by the early 1970s, Wally Amos had become frustrated with his career and decided to try his hand at selling his "famous" cookies. Music industry connections and celebrity investors like Helen Reddy and Marvin Gaye helped Amos get his store, located at 7181 Sunset Blvd., up and running. It quickly became a success, reaching $12 million in sales by 1982 and branching out to prepackaged cookies for grocery stores.

The success didn't last, however. By the late 1980s, Amos had lost his stake in Famous Amos amid mismanagement issues and declining sales. Shut out of the company that continued to bear his name, he briefly worked as a paid spokesperson after the brand was purchased by the Shansby Group in 1988. Since then, Famous Amos has been owned by the President Baking Company, Keebler, Kellogg, and, as of 2019, the Ferrero Group.

Less famous, still Amos:

Wally Amos has been involved in several other baking ventures, though none has endured (despite the frequent ownership changes) like Famous Amos cookies. His brands have included Uncle Wally’s Muffin Co., the Cookie Kahuna, Chip & Cookie, and Aunt Della's Cookies.

Amos has authored around a dozen books, including The Famous Amos Story: The Face That Launched A Thousand Chips, The Power In You, and The Man with No Name: Turn Lemons Into Lemonade.

Outside of his business ventures, Amos has been a staunch advocate for literacy since the early 1980s, getting involved in the Literacy Volunteers of America and hosting the community television program Learn to Read.

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