Wally Amos | |
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 Amos in 2007 | |
| Born | Wallace Amos Jr. July 1, 1936 Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. |
| Other names | Famous Amos |
| Known for | Famous Amos, Learn to Read |
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Wallace "Wally" Amos, Jr. (born July 1, 1936) is an American television personality, entrepreneur, and author from Tallahassee, Florida. He is the founder of the Famous Amos chocolate-chip cookie, the Cookie Kahuna, and Aunt Della's Cookies gourmet cookie brands, and he was the host of the adult reading program, Learn to Read .
Amos was born to Wallace & Ruby Amos. He was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, until he was 12 years old. [1] When his parents divorced, he moved to New York City with his aunt, where he enrolled at the Food Trades Vocational High School. He showed his interest in cooking at a young age. It was from his aunt Della Bryant, who would bake cookies for him, that Amos later developed his chocolate chip cookie recipe. [1]
Shortly before graduation, Amos dropped out of high school to join the United States Air Force. He served at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1954 until 1957. [2] He earned his high school equivalency diploma [3] before being honorably discharged from the military.
Returning to New York City, Amos went to college to become a secretary, and after graduating, took a mailroom clerk job with the William Morris Agency. [1] Eventually, he became the agency's first African American talent agent. He signed Simon & Garfunkel and headed the agency's rock 'n' roll department. Amos attracted clients by sending them chocolate chip cookies along with an invitation to visit him. He represented musicians such as The Temptations, Sam Cooke, and Marvin Gaye.
In 1975, a friend suggested to Amos that he set up a store to sell his cookies, and in March of that year, the first Famous Amos cookie store opened in Los Angeles, California. [4] He started the business with the help of a $25,000 loan from Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy. [5] The company began to expand, and eventually, Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies could be found on supermarket shelves across the United States. He became such a known figure culturally that he appeared as himself in the Taxi episode "Latka's Cookies", in 1981. Thanks in part to the success of his cookie company, he was hired to deliver speeches. He has written 10 books, [6] many of which have a self-help theme, including The Cookie Never Crumbles [7] and The Power in You. [8]
In 1979, Amos' long-time friend and publicist John Rosica introduced him to Literacy Volunteers of America. Amos has advocated literacy and helped thousands of adults learn to read. In 1987, he also hosted a television series designed to teach others how to read, entitled Learn to Read , produced by Kentucky Educational Television and WXYZ-TV. [9]
In 1986, Amos was awarded the Entrepreneurial Excellence Award by President Ronald Reagan at the White House Conference on Small Business. [10] [11]
Due to financial troubles, Amos was forced to sell the Famous Amos Company, and because the name "Famous Amos" was trademarked by his former company, he had to use The Uncle Noname's Cookie Company as his new company's name. [12] A Famous Amos distributor at the time, Lou Avignone, heard Amos on a local radio talk show and, inspired by Amos' story of his early business success with Famous Amos and his spirit, contacted Amos with the idea for starting a new business. In 1994, the two became partners and subsequently launched Uncle Noname Gourmet Muffins. The company focused on fat-free, nutritious muffins at that time. [13] Uncle Noname became Uncle Wally's Muffin Company in 1999. The muffins are sold in more than 3,500 stores nationwide. [14]
In 2014, an article in Fortune magazine lauded "The cookie comeback of 'Famous' Wally Amos" as Amos brought back his handmade cookies under a new name The Cookie Kahuna. These cookies were marketed in a store in Hawaii, where Amos was based. They come in the flavors original chocolate chip, chocolate chip with pecans and butterscotch with macadamia nuts. [15]
In 2019, Amos was called "the King of cookies" by NBC affiliate KSNV-TV in Las Vegas. [16]
In 2020, Content Media Group released a documentary on the life of Wally Amos, The Great Cookie Comeback: reBaking Wally Amos. The film was directed by Jeff MacIntyre. [17]
On July 1, 1979, Amos married Christine (Harris) Amos, who later helped him design the early merchandise and packaging for Famous Amos cookies. [18] Wally Amos has 4 children: Michael Amos, Gregory Amos, Sarah Amos, [19] and musician Shawn Amos. [20]
Amos had lived in Hawaii from 1977 until 2018. [21] [22] [23] Amos currently resides in Columbia, South Carolina, where he was working on Aunt Della's Cookies as of 2018. [23]
| Year | Name | Type | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | The Jeffersons | television sitcom | Man #1 | Season 7, episode 3 [24] |
| 1980 | Taxi | television sitcom | as himself | In 1980, Amos appeared in the February 5 episode of Taxi , entitled "Latka's Cookies", as himself. |
| 1987 | Learn to Read | educational TV series | host | |
| 2001 | Biography | television documentary | as himself | The episode is named "Famous Wally Amos: The Cookie King". [25] |
| 2012 | The Office | television sitcom | as himself | In 2012, Amos appeared in the February 16 episode of The Office , entitled "Tallahassee", as himself. |
| 2016 | Shark Tank | television reality show | as himself | Amos appeared in the October 6, 2016 episode of the American television show Shark Tank seeking $50,000 funding for 20% equity of his company "Cookie Kahuna". The Sharks all passed on the opportunity. [26] [27] |
| 2018 | The Great Cookie Comeback: Re-Baking Wally Amos | documentary film | as himself | The Great Cookie Comeback: Re-Baking Wally Amos (Released: February, 2020), a documentary film on the life of Wally Amos, released by Content Media Group. [28] [29] [30] |
A cookie or biscuit is a baked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat, and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, or nuts.
A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie that features chocolate chips or chocolate morsels as its distinguishing ingredient. Chocolate chip cookies are claimed to have originated in the United States in 1938, when Ruth Graves Wakefield chopped up a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar and added the chopped chocolate to a cookie recipe; however, historical recipes for grated or chopped chocolate cookies exist prior to 1938 by various other authors.
A cracker is a flat, dry baked biscuit typically made with flour. Flavorings or seasonings, such as salt, herbs, seeds, or cheese, may be added to the dough or sprinkled on top before baking. Crackers are often branded as a nutritious and convenient way to consume a staple food or cereal grain.
A muffin is an individually portioned baked product; however, the term can refer to one of two distinct items: a part-raised flatbread that is baked and then cooked on a griddle, or a quickbread that is chemically leavened and then baked in a mold. While quickbread "American" muffins are often sweetened, there are savory varieties made with ingredients such as corn and cheese, and less sweet varieties like traditional bran muffins. The flatbread "English" variety is of British or other European derivation, and dates from at least the early 18th century, while the quickbread originated in North America during the 19th century. Both types are common worldwide today.
A biscuit, in most English speaking countries, is a flour-based baked and shaped food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. Types of biscuit include sandwich biscuits, digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, Anzac biscuits, biscotti, and speculaas.
The Keebler Company is an American cookie and former cracker manufacturer. Founded in 1853, it has produced numerous baked snacks, advertised with the Keebler Elves. Keebler had marketed its brands such as Cheez-It, Chips Deluxe, Club Crackers, E.L. Fudge Cookies, Famous Amos, Fudge Shoppe Cookies, Murray cookies, Austin, Plantation, Vienna Fingers, Town House Crackers, Wheatables, Sandie's Shortbread, Pizzarias Pizza Chips, Chachos and Zesta Crackers, among others. Keebler slogans have included "Uncommonly Good" and "a little elfin magic goes a long way". Tom Shutter and Leo Burnett wrote the familiar jingle.
Ruth Jones Graves Wakefield was an American chef, best known for her innovations in the baking field. Ruth pioneered the first chocolate chip cookie recipe, an invention many people incorrectly assume was a mistake. Her new dessert, supposedly conceived of as she returned from a vacation in Egypt, is the inspiration behind the massively popular Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie. Throughout her life, Ruth found occupation as a dietitian, educator, business owner, and published author, most notably of the cookbook, Ruth Wakefield’s, Toll House: Tried and True Recipes.
Banana bread is a type of sweet bread made from mashed bananas. It is often a moist and sweet quick bread but some recipes are yeast raised.
Chocolate chips or chocolate morsels are small chunks of sweetened chocolate, used as an ingredient in a number of desserts, in trail mix and less commonly in some breakfast foods such as pancakes. They are often manufactured as teardrop-shaped volumes with flat circular bases; another variety of chocolate chips have the shape of rectangular or square blocks. They are available in various sizes, usually less than 10 millimetres (0.39 in) in diameter.
Entenmann's is an American company that manufactures baked goods and delivers them throughout the United States to supermarkets and other retailers for public sales. Often, they are known to have display cases at the end of store aisles. The company offers dessert, cup, loaf, and crumb cakes, and donuts, cookies, pies, cereal bars, muffins, Danish pastries, and among other baked goods, buns. In the past several years, they have added designer coffee flavors along with scented candles to their product line in an effort to broaden its appeal.
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Famous Amos is a brand of cookies founded in Los Angeles in 1975 by Wally Amos, a former talent agent with William Morris Agency.
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Seastar Bakery was a bakery in Portland, Oregon, United States. Annie Moss and Katia Bezerra-Clark owned and operated the business, which shared a space with Handsome Pizza in northeast Portland's Vernon neighborhood starting in 2015. Seastar served breads, cookies, pastries, and toast, among other baked goods. Despite garnering a positive reception and being deemed one of the city's best bakeries by Eater Portland and Portland Monthly, Seastar closed in August 2022.
Hello Robin is a woman-owned bakery with two locations in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. The original bakery opened on Capitol Hill in 2013. A second location opened at University Village in 2020.
Born in Tallahassee, Fla., Amos moved to New York City at age 12 because of his parents' divorce. He lived with an aunt, Della Bryant, who taught him how to make chocolate chip cookies.
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