Remembering 2024’s Losses: Wally Amos
By Four Walls
@FourWalls (69535)
United States
January 1, 2025 11:29am CST
This year, along with music, I’m saluting folks from other walks of life who left us last year. As with the music list, this will be alphabetical for 21 days, with the “top” ten in my personal reflection at the end. Grab a glass of milk as we get started.
Wally Amos
Never heard of him? Why, he was famous! Famous Amos!! Yes, Wally Amos was the man behind the cookie.
Wally Amos wore many hats over his hair net throughout his life. He was an Air Force veteran, having dropped out of high school to join the USAF in 1954 and serving at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu. He moved to New York City and became the William Morris Agency’s first African-American talent agent. Among his clients: the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, and Simon & Garfunkel.
Two musicians loaned him the money to start a store where he sold his cookies in 1975. In addition to the cookies, he was a literacy advocate and a self-help lecturer. He even appeared in an episode of Taxi.
Of course, as all things do in business, Famous Amos fell on hard times and Wally sold the trademark. He made a number of comebacks, although none of them were as successful as his original company.
Amos returned to Hawaii to live out his final years. He passed from complications related to dementia in August. He left a legacy of cookies; or, as he said, “happiness.”
Wally Amos
Born Wallace Amos, Jr.
July 1, 1936, Tallahassee, Florida
Died August 13, 2024, Honolulu, Hawaii (dementia) (age 88)
ABC news article on his death:
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5 people like this
4 responses
@FourWalls (69535)
• United States
1 Jan
This isn’t music, this is chocolate chip cookies!!!!!!! 
2 people like this
@TheHorse (220860)
• Walnut Creek, California
1 Jan
@FourWalls I actually kindo like chocolate cookies.
1 person likes this
@porwest (93299)
• United States
1 Jan
Yeah, I remember his story. He sold out, basically. I always think of it as a reminder to not only think of your current value, but your intrinsic value. When the two guys (I forget their names) sold their Tombstone pizza brand, I believe to Kraft—or whoever it was—they asked for their money in company stock. It paid off for them even if they didn't see the immediate benefit of the new money. But they saw the value of what they had, and made a way to make the value pay them so long as the value was there for the company that bought their brand.
As for Amos, I wasn't aware he was still alive. Well, until recently of course.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (69535)
• United States
1 Jan
I think the problem he had was that he was in dire straits (not the band ) financially and had to do whatever he could to get out of them. I haven’t read what the “deal” is that Big Lots made last week to stay open, but I know without looking that it was good for whomever made the deal and not good (financially) for Big Lots.
) financially and had to do whatever he could to get out of them. I haven’t read what the “deal” is that Big Lots made last week to stay open, but I know without looking that it was good for whomever made the deal and not good (financially) for Big Lots.1 person likes this
@porwest (93299)
• United States
2 Jan
@FourWalls Right. There ARE circumstances where someone can put themself in a position where they have to make certain concessions. In the case of Amos, I think what he failed to understand was that he could have accomplished both goals. To get out of dire straits (not the band ) AND secure his financial future. My thinking would have been this; I am ALREADY in financial dire straits, but a better deal could get me out of that PLUS provide for a better offer, I just have to wait a little bit longer to get out of the financial dire straits before I see the grander payoff.
I think Amos was a baker, not a financial genius, and not a businessman. Someone waved some money in front of him, and he was suckered out of his cookies because he did not realize what his cookies were actually worth.
) AND secure his financial future. My thinking would have been this; I am ALREADY in financial dire straits, but a better deal could get me out of that PLUS provide for a better offer, I just have to wait a little bit longer to get out of the financial dire straits before I see the grander payoff.
I think Amos was a baker, not a financial genius, and not a businessman. Someone waved some money in front of him, and he was suckered out of his cookies because he did not realize what his cookies were actually worth.1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (81194)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
1 Jan
You know when I was little I stuffed myself with cookies but never in my entire life did I ever have an Amos cookie,
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (69535)
• United States
2 Jan
Famous Amos cookies, at least the packaged ones you got in the store, weren’t any better than any other packaged cookies. It’s VERY difficult to mess up chocolate chip cookies (although it has been done by low-budget store brands), and by the same token, it’s also difficult to make them stand out from the rest.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (183178)
• United States
2 Jan
Yup. I know who he is. It's a shame he sold his trademark. Have a good day.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (69535)
• United States
2 Jan
Sometimes they don’t feel like they have an option.
1 person likes this
