10 things you didn’t know about Famous Amos

He dropped out of high school to join the United States Air Force, serving at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii, from 1954 until 1957. Amos earned his high school equivalency diploma before being honourably discharged from the military.

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As an Air Force veteran, he later worked with the William Morris Agency, becoming the company’s first African-American talent agent. He signed Simon & Garfunkel and represented musicians such as The Temptations, Sam Cooke, and Marvin Gaye.

Amos used his home-baked chocolate chip cookies to attract and entice talents to meet and perhaps sign a deal with his agency. When he eventually hit a plateau working for the William Morris Agency, he decided to take the advice of some friends, US$25,000 from singers Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy, strike out on his own and open a cookie store at 7181 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, in Los Angeles, California in 1975. His aunt, who inspired the original cookie recipe, was present at the opening of the store.

Famous Amos sold a modified version of his aunt’s chocolate chip cookie recipe. During Famous Amos’ first year, Amos made US$300,000 worth of sales, followed by more than US$1 million in sales in the second year.

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By 1982, the company's revenues reached US$12 million. It became so immensely popular that the brand branched out to sell cookies in supermarkets–an expansion that would later be emulated by other brands such as Baskin-Robbins, T.G.I. Fridays, and Starbucks.

Famous Amos cookies were the first to be made shelf-stable, allowing them to be sold in supermarkets without going stale but what set Famous Amos apart was the shop, with its inviting aroma and Amos’ larger-than-life personality, which became a local sensation. Amos, with his trademark Panama hat and wide grin, became the face of the brand and therefore, a celebrity in his own right. His marketing savvy helped propel Famous Amos from a local favourite to a national brand, and an international brand.

The Famous Amos cookie brand has gone through four package designs.

The original package was a round, tin metal box with a photo of a large chocolate chip cookie spinning on Amos’ finger. Amos was pictured on these packages, wearing his trademark hat and cotton shirt. In the 80s, the packages were small plastic bags that had the brand's name inscribed in small letters and a photo of Amos spinning a large chocolate chip cookie on his finger.

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The 1990s packages were much larger, with “Famous Amos” prominently displayed on the cover. Several small cookies and a blue ribbon reading “chocolate chip” were featured instead of Amos. The 2000s packages are very similar to the ones in the 1990s, except for the ribbon's colour (almond instead of blue) and part of Amos’ biography on the back.

The 1980s saw rapid expansion of Famous Amos and in 1986, Amos was awarded the Entrepreneurial Excellence Award by President Ronald Reagan at the White House Conference on Small Business. He also appeared as himself in sitcoms The Jeffersons (1980) and Taxi (1981). However, as the company grew, Amos became increasingly removed from the day-to-day operations and financial difficulties led to him selling portions of the company.

In March 1985, Amos sold 51 per cent interest to Bass Brothers Enterprises in an attempt to salvage the business. That year, the company had lost US$300,000 as revenues slipped to US$10 million. Investors got involved to stop the downward spiral but couldn’t get the company back on track.

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The Famous Amos brand has had several owners since its inception: The Shansby Group, the President Baking Company, Keebler, Kellogg Company, and finally, the Ferrero Group. The loss of the Famous Amos Company was a big blow to Amos but his entrepreneurial spirit couldn’t be dampened. 

He started a new venture–The Uncle Noname’s Cookie Company–because the name Famous Amos was trademarked by his former company. He would subsequently launch Uncle Noname Gourmet Muffins, which focused on fat-free muffins, with Lou Avignone, who heard and was inspired by Amos’ story. Uncle Noname Gourmet Muffins later became Uncle Wally’s Muffin Company and was sold in more than 3,500 stores nationwide.

Then, he brought back his cookies under The Cookie Kahuna, which sold original chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookies with pecans, and butterscotch cookies with macadamia nuts.

Amos also became an advocate for literacy, writing books, and speaking about the importance of education. Additionally, he was the host of the adult educational reading program, Learn to Read, which was based on 27 million Americans having almost no reading skills. In his lifetime, he authored 10 books, including an autobiography titled The Famous Amos Story: The Face That Launched a Thousand Chips and contributed to four other books, including Conversations on Success–all while continuing to bring joy to the world.

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