Wallace Amos Junior is one of the most famous people of American television in the 20th century. He is famous because of his TV appearances, but also his books and the companies he worked with.
Other people know him as the man who made the Famous Amos cookie and also promoted The Cookie Kahuna.
His days on the TV were very colorful because he did many, many different things.
Although he isn’t well known to people nowadays because he used to be famous during different times, many still follow the work of his brand!
Early years
Wally Amos was born in an interesting part of the USA: Florida. His birth town is actually Tallahassee and he said that he loved the childhood he had there, but also stated that Florida can be a dangerous place for a young African-American boy.
At the age of 12, his parents got divorced and this soon changed his daily life significantly. Not only did he suffer because his family was torn apart, but he also had to relocate.
His new location was Manhattan, one of the most famous boroughs of New York. He lived there with his aunt because his family was dysfunctional and this was very interesting for him because he hadn’t spent any time with her before. His aunt name is Della Bryant.
His aunt wanted him to get an education so she told him that he could enroll in school in NYC. He decided to go for cooking because he always liked to cook and he felt as if he could be really good at it.
She was very happy with his choice because she personally loved to cook and her favorite “dish” were all types of cookies. Many speculate that Amos actually learned all of his cookie skills from her and later opened up a factory. He said many times that her recipes were the best!
Many people ask him what is the secret to his cookies and he always says that there are a few secret ingredients that he added to the mix his aunt made.
High school didn’t seem like a good idea to him when he was close to graduating. He said that he felt as if his true call was going to the US Air Force and he actually became an officer there.
Wally spent some time in Honolulu from 1954 to 1957 and he was in the Hickam Air Force Base. In the end, he got a diploma because of the work he did in the military. Many people thought that this was pretty controversial, but he never disclaimed anything.
Career development
His career started when he went to New York and he decided to become a secretary. College was pretty interesting for him after all of the things he went through and he was happy to get a job in the William Morris Agency.
He is special because he is the first African American talent agent. This meant that he worked with a lot of musicians and he always jokes about the fact that he brought them cookies in order to attract them.
Some of the big names he had worked with were Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye and many more.
In 1975, a friend of his told him that it would maybe be a good idea to start selling cookies. They were pretty well known at that point and he thought that he could maybe eventually make a living from his baking.
Amos thought that it was a good ide and in the spring od 1975, he opened his Famous Amos store in LA. Wally said that he always knew Los Angeles was the right place to open it at because there is always a bunch of people around.
His good friend Marvin Gaye actually loaned him about a quarter thousand dollars to start his cookie factory. He really quickly spread and he said that it was very interesting and fun to see how his store was growing so quickly.
Soon his cookies were in supermarkets as well and he said that he was very proud each time he passed by those. People knew who he was and connected the cookies to him, so he appeared in an episode of Taxi as well.
He said that he thankfully had the time to work on himself because of the success of his company and that he wrote 10 different books that were in the self-growth niche. One of them is called The Cookie Never Crumbles, which is very funny considering his career.
In 1979, his friend introduced him to the Literacy Volunteers organization and Wally soon started to spread awareness about writing and reading. He says that everyone should be able to enjoy a good book, no matter what their education was like and if they had any.
He also had a TV series that was dedicated to those who couldn’t read and he would work with them. His biggest love besides cooking was always reading and he said that he would like that everyone has the opportunity to meet him so he can give them free books of his.
However, tough times came and he had to sell his company because he had some legal issues with the name of the company and this ended up being a new beginning for him because a businessman Lou Avignone heard this and he wanted to work with him.
The duo created the Uncle Noname Gourmet Muffins and they wanted to create nutritious snacks, so they focused on the macronutrients in them.
In 1999, the name changed to Wally’s Muffin Company and today you can find these in over 3500 supermarkets all over the globe! The success didn’t die, after all.
Wally was really quiet for a long time and then in 2014 suddenly the Fortune magazine spread the news about his possible comeback. This raised a lot of attention and people were interested to see what would happen next since no one has heard from Wally in a very long time.
Surely enough, he creates different cookies again under the name The Cookie Kahuna, so he doesn’t have any legal issues now. He focuses on whole foods and makes sure that all of his recipes are wholesome, just like the starting company was.
Personal life
Wally isn’t really the type of person to share a lot on his personal life on the internet or the media. Back in those times there actually wasn’t such a huge fuss about the lives of celebrities like him, so he lived a fairly peaceful one.
After being in Hawaii due to serving the Air Force, he stayed there for some more time. He loves the people and the culture as well so he decided to live there. He got there in 1977 and hasn’t gone back to the USA since.
He also married a woman called Christine Amos-Harris in 1979 and he often jokes about the fact that he is the one that makes the sweet stuff for their home! She says that she surely doesn’t mind. Not a lot of people have seen her or know who she is because she appears just through Wally’s quotes: she chooses to have a peaceful life.
She had a big role in their living together because she spent time making the design his cookie products will be packaged in. She created the whole Famous Amos cookies look, which is not something that many people know.
Amos has a child called Shawn Amos and he lives in Hawaii as well, in Kailua. He is today the owner of the new company (The Cookie Kahuna) and he wanted to follow what his father did, so he volunteered to help.
Amos, during the time in Pearl Harbor, also worked with children and he liked to read with them and teach them many things. He said that he was very interested in becoming a teacher at one point in his life, but life seems to take him elsewhere.
Amos once spun a cookie of his on his finger as if it was a basketball and he thought that it would be a really good idea for a commercial as well, but it became a trend and all the kids were buying his cookies just to try to do that.
His packaging has been redone later on, but he insisted on the fact that they still look similar to the vintage packaging his wife made. He said that he knows she worked very hard to make them nice and he wanted to keep some of the original taste to it.
Many people love him for his quirky personality and he is one of the rare celebrities who have had no controversy throughout his whole career. The only issues he had were legal issues that happened because his lawyer didn’t check his rights for the name of the company and Wally felt bad when this happened.
His current marriage is his third marriage and he had more children besides Shawn. He has Sarah, Michael, and Gregory as well, but none of them stayed really connected to him because he separated from their mother and they didn’t want to inherit the company.
He appeared in an episode of The Office and many people were intrigued because they saw him on many commercials and even on the packaging of his cookies. He said that it was a very good feeling to be back on TV and that he wanted to create more content, but he simply doesn’t have the energy anymore.
Quick summary
Full name: Wallace Amos Junior
Date of birth: July 1st, 1936
Birthplace: Tallahassee, Florida, The United States of America
Age: 83
Profession: writer, entrepreneur, TV personality
Height: 185 cm
Weight: 72 kg
Net Worth: $20,000