Within months, Amos had opened two more West Coast franchises, and the New York-based Bloomingdale's department store had begun selling the gourmet cookies. In 1967, five years later, feeling "burned out" and "stagnant," as he put it, Amos left the agency and went to Los Angeles to create his own entertainment agency. "I'll take a bag of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies and a chance to ogle the beautiful young groovers at agent Wally Amos' Sunset Blvd. She loved to cook, and she lavished the youngster with her special chocolate chip cookies. Actually, Amos says, fame never really mattered much to him. Amos held a holiday block party where celebrity guests included Andy Warhol and Muhammad Ali. He began baking cookies using his Aunt Dellas recipe. All Rights Reserved. After a four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force, Amos returned to New York in 1957. . Contents Web site: http://www.saltoninc.com None of them have had the mass appeal or success of Famous Amos. However, he faced financial setbacks and lost ownership of his company. At the same time, he moved to New York City to live with his mother's sister, Della. But since the name was copyrighted by the original company Wally can no longer use the name " Famous Amos ". His cookie shop, Chip & Cookie, is a couple of miles from his home in the oceanside community of Kailua. As a man who had made his living promoting other people as an agent, he used his background to come up with ways to sell cookies. Wally was the only child in a loveless and impoverished Tallahassee marriage. Wally Amos was born on July 1, 1936, in Tallahassee, Florida. 1900-1996. He created a massive global brand.Famous Amos Cookies.and then lost it all.vMost cookie lovers don't. By 1967, Amos decided to strike out on his own. Amos dropped out of high school but earned his G.E.D. 23 Feb. 2023 . Box 419627 Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/amos-wally-1937. When Wally Amos first developed Famous Amos cookies in 1975, the brand became one of the most unlikely success stories in food history. For an entrepreneur who was down on his luck it was almost too good a deal to pass up. 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.". But even without Mr. Amos on board, the Shansby Group began to turn the business around, cutting costs and pushing sales through vending machines. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html, Born: July 1, 1936Tallahassee, FloridaFounder, Famous Amos Chocolate Chip CookieCompany. Amos began selling shares of the business to outsiders; he also tried to launch new products such as chocolate sodas, which did not work out. 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. 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. Current Biography Yearbook. And I guarantee, youll experience both.. But Wally Amos isn't one to fret over the loss of his name or his company. Together with his son, Shawn, who was then a young child, Amos began to search for an affordable storefront in Los Angeles. [18], Amos had lived in Hawaii from 1977 until 2018. 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 loved the cookies my Aunt Della made for me," Wally Amos wrote in his motivational book, The Power in You. Amos, Wally, and Leroy Robinson. But ''it was a shocker at first.'' "Crack Reporter Brings Famous Amos to His Knees." In financial terms, Wally wrote in 1996, all Ive done since is amass debt and miss payments.. His good nature and solid work habits soon helped him to advance, and he was eventually named the companys first black agent. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. When a new job opportunity. ". Amos even appeared in Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade from 1977 to 1981. Cookies were a hobby to relieve stress, says his son Shawn Amos, musician, and author of Cookies & Milk. Kellogg Company. After dropping out of high school, he served in the Air Force and worked in the stockroom of Saks Fifth Avenue. . The cruelest blow of all fell in the early 1990s, when the cookie man was struggling to keep his home from foreclosure. He is about to return to the cookie business. Amos, Wally, Eden-Lee Murray, and Neale Donald Walsch. The muffins, for instance, are a leading brand in Pathmark supermarkets in the New York area and are available nationally in stores like Costco warehouse clubs and Edwards supermarkets. Commitment kept moving me on from one point to the next. One aspect of Wally Amoss life remains consistent from one era to the next, however: his dedication to his product. He quit high school, joined the Air Force, got his GED, and landed a clerical job in New York. Some cookies were too small. Over the next decade, Famous Amos expanded exponentially, growing into an international chain. Or, if you stay there long enough someone will come and rescue you.''. We made the move to the West Coast, and I fell in love with L.A. the epicenter of the entertainment world. By 1989 it was gone. an agent and by 1974, he was looking for something new. With financial backing from singers like Gaye and an innovative marketing initiative, which included an extensive advertising campaign and a gala grand opening, the first Famous Amos cookie store opened on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1975. Contemporary Black Biography. Carlsen, Clifford. Amos headed the rock n roll department, where he signed Simon and Garfunkel and worked with Motown megastars The Supremes, Diana Ross, Sam Cooke, and Dionne Warwick. By the time the Bass Brothers of Fort Worth, Texas, came on the scene in 1985, the company founder was in serious financial trouble. Wallace "Wally" Amos, Jr. (born July 1, 1936) is an American television personality, entrepreneur, and author from Tallahassee, Florida. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Long Island Business News (October 21, 1996): p. 41. In March of 1975, Wally Amos launched The Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookie Store in Los Angeles. "When the store opened, it was him in the back making cookies and me standing on a milk crate in the front, selling.". Bush in 1991. That same year, his fascination with cooking led him to enroll in the Food Trades Vocational High School. His treatsbaked at locations in Nutley, New Jersey and Van Nuys, Californiawere sold in chic department stores and at several outlets in the nations bigger cities. Racist Ex-University Of Kentucky 'Karen' Sophia Rosing Is Charged For Assaulting Black Student, Mississippi Cops Beat, Waterboarded Handcuffed Black Men, Shot 1 For Dating White Women': Lawyers. Encyclopedia.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. He decided to take a chance with his cookies. ''If Dave left Wendy's and came back after 10 years because things had not gone well the message is signaling change that 'We're going back to the way we used to be.' Whatever his former ties to it, he said, ''I will always be Famous Amos. Yet his legacy as a barrier-breaking entrepreneur remains. Keebler Company. Your tax-deductible financial support keeps our stories free to read, instead of hidden behind paywalls. Leading American Businesses. "Famous Amos" went with the company, too. "Amos, Wally However, in 1985, mismanagement forced Amos to gradually sell off parts of his company. The Shansby Group sued Amos for violating an agreement that forbade him to use his name and likeness on the packaging of any food products. Amos was born Wallace Amos Jr. on July 1, 1936, in Tallahassee, Florida. To establish his store he raised $25,000 from entertainment friends including singers Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy. I'm especially glad that Famous Amos Cookies are now in the hands of people who love, live, and breathe great-tasting cookies." While Famous Amos soon lived up to its name, thriving for nearly a decade, the company's founder lost control of his business. Among the products developed by the company are pound cakes in such flavors as banana blueberry and orange cranberry, and fat-free muffins in a variety of flavors, including corn and honey raisin bran, apple cinnamon, chocolate passion, and blueberry. "One year, the theme of the block party was 'Cookies and Milk with Amos and Andy.' In 1988, the Shansby Group bought the company for $3 million dollars, not a lot of dough for that era. In 1998, Keebler purchased the brand, keeping Amos as the spokesperson. By 1985, however, the Famous Amos Cookie Company was suffering debilitating financial losses, and Amos sold a controlling share in the venture to a Texas investment group. Pollack, Judann. Amos decided to change the brands name to Uncle Nonam. Around the time Wally lost ownership in his company, his career took perhaps its most remarkable turn. "Amos, Wally In his autobiography, The Famous Amos Story, Amos said that his parents rarely laughed and seldom displayed affection toward him. Fax: (503) 627-2406 She introduced young Wally to the simple delights of a warm, chocolate chip cookie. Debt mounted to $1.3 million and Uncle Noname filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1997, emerging just two months ago. With the help of a friend, Mr. Amos eventually got the house back. African American entrepreneur Wally Amos founded the Famous Amos cookie brand. Famous Amos's distinctive packaging became almost as famous as the cookies themselves: every brown bag featured a smiling Wally Amos, dressed in a straw Panama hat and a decorated white shirt. "I was confident Masekela's career would bankroll our dream. 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. "He had great instincts about story, and he had great instincts about how to make people feel good," Shawn says. Check out a post by digital creator, @talk2pops, highlighting Wally Amos story below: What Happened To Wendy Williams? . By the time Amos started his own LA talent agency, his roster was chockablock with sixties swagger: Diana Ross & the Supremes, Sam Cook, and Simon & Garfunkel were all friends. Wally Amos gained prominence as an entrepreneur in the mid-1970s when he developed and marketed a brand of chocolate-chip cookies under the name "Famous Amos." The company, based in Shirley, N.Y., expects to produce 250 million muffins this year and 1 billion muffins annually by 2010. Who owns Famous Amos cookie company today? Success came swiftly as The Famous Amos Cookie Company sold $300,000 worth of cookies in its first year and was making $12 million in revenue by 1982. Amos has three sons from his first two marriages, Shawn, Michael and Gregory. This was comfort food at its best. "Just look at these," he says, looking down at the hard, small, unappealing cookies. This is also how Toll House brand cookies got their start. How much did Wally Amos sell his company for? Kimbro, Dennis, and Napoleon Hill.
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