On the Island Paradise of Oahu, Wally Amos Gets That Question Every Day

AREOn the“ island paradise of Oahu, YOUWally Amos gets that question every day. FAMOUSIf only the answer were simple. BY JOHN McALLEY AMOS? PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARCO GARCIA 66 SPIRIT SEPTEMBER 2013 ” SEPTEMBER 2013 SPIRIT 67 SNACK ATTACK On Waikiki Beach, Amos is a man of the people—and a peddler of his new Wamos Cookies. ONE OF THE WORD’S many meanings is “sharing its side panels. The badly scraped front-left and thy of the Mad Hatter—if Lewis Carroll’s mis- every corner of the globe. “Now,” says the guy who Athe breath ofL life.” And in a Otraditional HawaiianH rear-right wheelA wells aren’t intended. to impress. chievous oddball had a thing for watermelon. decades ago was dubbed “the cookie man,” “I’m greeting, two people lean into each other, gently “Twice I’ve run into a pillar in my parking lot,” Everywhere we stop on today’s tour of this famous just for being famous.” touch their foreheads and noses together, and the 77-year-old entrepreneur says with a laugh. island paradise, Amos will be bathed in warmth. inhale the same “ha,” or breath. It’s an exquisitely “And last week I got sideswiped by a bus. I’m sup- “Hey, Wally!” hollers a bellman fronting the cir- UR WORLD WAS a little less sweet in intimate exchange of friendship, but it’s not how posed to take that up with the city, but the truth is cular drive of the tony Kahala Hotel & Resort. the early ’70s. Stand-alone cookie Wally Amos enters a scene. I’ve been more harmful to my car than anyone else.” “Uncle Wally!” cheers a horn-honking local on stores like Mrs. Fields didn’t exist. Pulling out of his high-rise apartment building The elaborately adorned ride functions as a jam-packed Kalakaua Avenue. (In Hawaii, uncle Neither, for that matter, did most of the a block from Waikiki Beach, the man universally rolling billboard, and an effective one at that. is an affectionate sobriquet showered on elders.) Oguilty-pleasure emporiums that now crowd food known as Famous Amos announces his presence Arguably, Amos is the most well-known face on On the chill main street of the North Shore town courts and airport terminals. In March of 1975, with the chimes of a Good Humor truck. Fixed Oahu, challenged only by the temporary appear- of Haleiwa, a white pickup with monster wheels when Amos, a broke talent agent and father of beneath the hood of his SUV are speakers that, at ance, a few years ago, of some guy named Clooney. rumbles past Matsumoto, the Le Cirque of shave three, opened the first Famous Amos cookie store the flip of a switch, fill the palm-lined streets with (The Oscar-nominated film The Descendants was ice. Leaning across the passenger seat, its tatted on a seedy stretch of Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, the plink-plink of Disney’s “It’s a Small World shot here.) To be accurate, it’s not Amos’ face that driver isn’t too cool to give the old man a shout-out: he had no way of knowing he’d change the course (After All).” Heightening the head-turning spec- sparks recognition, it’s his Technicolor uniform: “Famous Amos!” of confectioner history and one day see his low- tacle are the car’s vanity plates—WALLY1—and standard-issue flip-flops and shorts topped by an The good vibes are remarkable given the distant budgeted act of desperation grow into a company the large images of a beaming Amos plastered to Aloha shirt, a lei of braided ribbons, and a lid wor- success that made Amos identifiable in virtually worth tens of millions of dollars. 68 SPIRIT SEPTEMBER 2013 SEPTEMBER 2013 SPIRIT 69 personal errand on a day otherwise dedicated to out the day. Other earnest aphorisms require the playing host in this sunlit nirvana to a pasty main- aid of Google Maps: “Every move we make and land journalist. “I’m always on the edge of time. I every breath we take is leading us somewhere.” can never quite get on time. So quite often I eat in “The moment is what matters. You’re always my car,” Amos says cheerfully. “But it’s caused here, you’re never there. There is no there, so me a few bug problems,” he adds, reaching, with- you’re always here.” out embarrassment, behind the driver and pas- Everywhere he looks, Amos sees the universe senger seats for a pair of roach motels alarmingly at work. As our loop around the island begins, the close to hanging their “No Vacancy” signs. first hit of beauty he shares with me is Hanauma Chalk it up to island life. That, and to the pride Bay, an awe-inspiring nature preserve swim- Amos takes in being an open book. “Ten books,” ming with turtles, trumpet fish, and snorkelers. he’s quick to remind me. In the decades since he Cruising the filled-to-capacity parking lot, he sold his cookie empire, the inexhaustibly verbose eyes an open space. This is not dumb luck, it’s THE MIXMASTER In part, what fueled pitchman has become a philosopher king, a lecture- faith in the flow. “You see?” Amos says, assuredly. Amos’ fame was the circuit staple whose stack of motivational books “The sign said Lot Full, and we could have just signage on his first includes titles like Man With No Name: Turn kept going, missing this beautiful opportunity. store, and his likeness on each bag. His bold Lemons Into Lemonade and Watermelon Magic: But we entered the lot and drove right into a spot. style—even at home, Seeds of Wisdom, Slices of Life. When you peddle So there’s life again, man.” with his son Shawn— advice for so many years, those messages and Remarkably, the same thing happens up the didn’t hurt either. fruity metaphors become your vocabulary. “Life road at a South Shore lookout called the Halona is spirit; life is energy,” Amos says often through- Blowhole. “You see?” says Amos, barely able to THE COOKIE THAT MADE AMOS FAMOUS Despite folklore from the Famous Amos heyday, the “secret” recipe for Wally’s world-beating cookie came directly from the back of a Nestlé Toll House bag. “Everyone’s chocolate chip cookie derives from the recipe Ruth Wakefield created in the early ’30s,” he says. “The secret is in who is baking them. Everybody’s cookies taste different, because life is not flour and sugar. It’s spirit; it’s energy.” It’s Wally’s oddball pointers, too. 2 medium eggs ¾ cup granulated sugar “Of the big four, he was definitely the first one in,” local phenomenon into a national one, the posh 2 sticks salted butter 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract says David Liederman, whose David’s Cookies aisles of Bloomingdale’s. Through guest spots on ½ teaspoon salt 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour duked it out with Famous Amos, Mrs. Fields, and television, countless public appearances, and the 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup pecans ¾ cup brown sugar 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips the Great American Cookie Factory for gourmet- Famous Amos packaging itself, the image of a treat dominance. With Famous Amos as prototype, fully bearded Amos in a Panama hat and embroi- 1. Put eggs, butter, salt, baking soda, sug- 6. The next day, cut batter into 8-inch by the age of Cinnabon and Auntie Anne’s, ad nau- dered, Indian gauze shirt became inseparable ars, and vanilla extract into a stand mixer. 2-inch rectangles. Sprinkle with flour, Mix at low speed for 1 minute. Increase to and, using two hands, roll on a countertop seam, had dawned. “It was a budding industry,” from the cookie’s success and made him into one medium speed for another minute, then until each rectangle is a snake-like 1 inch Liederman says. “And Wally was a master at get- of the quirkiest and most visible cultural icons of to high for 4 minutes. in diameter. Re-refrigerate. ting publicity.” the late 20th century. 2. With the mixer off, add flour, then blend at 7. Preheat oven to 350 (electric) or 375 (gas). medium speed for 2 ½ minutes. Lightly coat a nonstick, lipped cookie Today, the culinary world is aflame with noisy, The quirks are still there. This mid-July 3. Rather than chop the pecans, the “cookie sheet with Pam, then pinch off 1-inch bits outsize, ready-for–prime time personalities like morning, Amos—at 6’1”, a reed of a man with a man” prefers to break them by hand. Fold of rolled cookie dough, placing them in six Emeril Lagasse, Guy Fieri, and Rachael Ray. puzzling medicine ball of a belly—sits behind them into the batter with the mixer set rows of 10. Don’t be perfectionist about to low. the shape of each dollop. It’s arguable that Wally Amos pioneered this the wheel of his Ford Escape with a bath towel 4. “The chocolate chips are the last thing 8. Bake for about 12 minutes. “You want them now ubiquitous foodie flamboyance. A tireless tucked into his shirt and draped down across to go in,” says Wally, who, again, recom- as brown on the top as they are on the promoter and motormouth, he’d do anything to his lap. Cradling a bowl of fresh fruit and yogurt mends a low mixer speed. bottom,” Wally says. The finished cookie 5. Here’s where Wally becomes … Wally. He should be the size of a half-dollar, and crispy.

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