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When my dad, Wally Amos, decided to open the first Famous Amos store in 1975, he didn\u2019t 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<\/strong><\/a> and Art Garfunkel<\/a>,<\/strong> Marvin Gaye<\/a> and the Supremes<\/a>, he was burnt out in the entertainment business and looking to do something that really made him happy.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019t start the company to be famous, but that didn\u2019t mean he didn\u2019t love the fame once he had it. He was on the cover of Time<\/em> magazine, baked cookies with Andy Warhol<\/a>, and guest-starred on TV shows ranging from Taxi<\/em> to The Jeffersons.<\/em> He married a hot blonde flight attendant and moved to Hawaii<\/a>, and many assumed he lived the rest of his life with cookie millions in paradise.<\/p>\n Fifty years later, that brand he created is still going strong, but in the end, cookies didn\u2019t exactly provide the happy ending for which my dad had hoped. When he passed away in August of 2024<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n Most people who seek to understand their parent\u2019s life and choices after they pass away do the work privately. But I am more my father\u2019s daughter than I like to admit, so here we are at the beginning of a six-episode podcast journey<\/a> to understand who Wally Amos really was.<\/p>\n To hear the first two episodes of Tough Cookie: The Wally \u201cFamous\u201d Amos Story<\/a>,<\/em> listen here<\/a> or wherever you download your podcasts. New episodes every Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n