‘Famous Amos’ meets local fans

Robert Tighe worked right down the street from Amos’ Sunset Boulevard store years ago, and he can still vividly recall the taste of the fresh- baked chocolate chip cookies there.

“I spent almost all my money on those cookies,” Tighe said.

So imagine the Newport Beach resident’s surprise when he walked into the Cannery Restaurant for a Sunday brunch and sitting at the table, signing books, was the man behind the cookies, Wally “Famous” Amos.

Tighe was thrilled and bought two books just to collect a signature, and to talk cookies and Hawaii with Amos who has lived in the town of Kailua, on the island of Oahu, for the past 29 years.

Amos was at the restaurant to sign his most recent book, “Be Positive, Be Positive,” in addition to his earlier works, “Watermelon Magic,” and “The Cookie Never Crumbles” cookbook.

In 1974 the first Famous Amos cookie store opened on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Before that, Amos worked as a talent agent.

“I would always go to meetings with a bunch of cookies so the producers would remember me,” he said. “It was all I knew how to make.”

After 14 years in the industry, the Florida native decided he was not going to strike it rich, at least not in the movies, and decided to do the only other thing he knew about — bake cookies. So with encouragement from a friend, Amos left the movie sets behind and moved into the kitchen, whipping up fresh batches of chocolate chip cookies.

The fresh-baked cookies caught on and the next few years were a whirlwind for Amos as he found himself talked about in publications like the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Slowly, however, corporate partners steadily took control of the company out of his hands, until one day when he formally called it quits. For years afterward he was unable for legal reasons to open another business using his own name.

The cookies produced today by that company, “are not my cookies anymore,” Amos said.

The loss of his company never stopped this entrepreneur from moving forward, however, with other ventures in the food business.