‘Famous Amos’ was my dad — but hidden under his sweet exterior was a troubling truth

Everybody knows Famous Amos cookies — the simple, crispy, delicious sweet treats you’ve been buying in little bags from vending machines, or from Costco in bulk if you’re a super fan, for as long as you can remember.

Fewer people could tell you much about the man behind the phenomenon, who lived a wildly colorful, dizzyingly complicated life.

I should know. I’m his daughter.

Wally Amos, my dad, was born in 1936, into a deeply segregated Tallahassee, Florida — a poor black kid who was constantly being told and shown by society he was worth less than his white counterparts.

Against titanic odds, he went on to become the first black talent agent at the William Morris agency, working with legendary acts like Simon & Garfunkel. The truly self-made success launched his first bakery on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1975 — selling nothing but the chocolate chip cookies he initially started out baking to entice new clients.

To go from high school dropout to being on the cover of Time Magazine’s “The Hot New Rich” issue — it’s a trajectory that’s almost impossible to believe.