Famous Amos: Unveiling the Hidden World of a Cookie Tycoon | Vanity Fair

When my dad, Wally Amos, decided to open the first Famous Amos store in 1975, he didn’t set out to be famous. That little corner shop he opened on Sunset and Formosa, in the heart of Hollywood, was more desperate pivot than calculated risk. Despite having been the first Black talent agent at William Morris, working with acts like Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, Marvin Gaye and the Supremes, he was burnt out in the entertainment business and looking to do something that really made him happy.

Chocolate chip cookies made him happy. Giving them to other people made him even happier. Earning a living through cookies? Well, that would be the dream. And for a while it really was. He created a new industry, paving the way for brands like Mrs. Fields and David’s Cookies. It was the definition of the American dream. A high school dropout, born in the segregated South, manages to use his charm and natural promotional skills to achieve meteoric success. And sure, he didn’t start the company to be famous, but that didn’t mean he didn’t love the fame once he had it. He was on the cover of Time magazine, baked cookies with Andy Warhol, and guest-starred on TV shows ranging from Taxi to The Jeffersons. He married a hot blonde flight attendant and moved to Hawaii, and many assumed he lived the rest of his life with cookie millions in paradise.

Fifty years later, that brand he created is still going strong, but in the end, cookies didn’t exactly provide the happy ending for which my dad had hoped. When he passed away in August of 2024, he left behind six marriages to five women, broken relationships with all four of his children, and a mountain of debt and failed companies, not to mention a family in chaos.

Most people who seek to understand their parent’s life and choices after they pass away do the work privately. But I am more my father’s daughter than I like to admit, so here we are at the beginning of a six-episode podcast journey to understand who Wally Amos really was.

To hear the first two episodes of Tough Cookie: The Wally “Famous” Amos Story, listen here or wherever you download your podcasts. New episodes every Wednesday.