 The heart and soul behind The Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies is Wally Amos. He is embarking on a new enterprise, the Uncle Noname Cookie Company, destined to be a success based on his achievements thus far. But wait--we're getting ahead of ourselves. In his BC (Before Cookie) days, Tallahassee-born Wally moved to New York City to attend the Food Trades Vocational High School to train to be a cookie--ah, a cook, that is. After stints in the air force and as a manager for Saks Fifth Avenue, Wally began work at The William Morris Talent Agency where he represented such clients as Simon & Garfunkel and the Supremes. In 1967, Wally left William Morris to manage his own clients. It was in his work as manager that Wally first began baking, bagging, and passing out cookies at meetings and on television and motion picture sets. "It reached a point where people wouldn't say "hello" when they saw me. They'd say, "where are my cookies?" Everybody told me I should go into the cookie business, but I didn't take the idea seriously at the time." Finally, with the encouragement of a friend and some enthusiastic backers--such as Marvin Gaye--Wally decided to market his product--"You see, I manage The Cookie. I'm doing the same things for its career that I'd do for any artist. It's completely a show-business approach." In 1975, he dropped his other clients to manage just The Cookie. Since that time, Wally's business has skyrocketed into Cookie Heaven. When discussing how The Cookie has changed his life, Wally noticeably softens. "There's a warm feeling connected with the whole thing. I feel almost spiritual about it--it's like there's a Power behind what's happened, the way things have been falling into place." Wally has been the recipient of many honors and awards. Whoever thought that someone who received only a high school diploma and made their living off of cookies would receive an honorary doctorate in Education from Johnson & Wales University, be inducted into the Babson College Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs, and receive the Horatio Alger Award, the President's Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence and The National Literacy Honors Award. Also, Wally gave the shirt off his back and his battered Panama hat to the Smithsonian Institutions Business Americana Collection.
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