Richard LaMotta, inventor of Chipwich, has died

More than 30 years ago, Richard LaMotta had a little ice cream parlor in Englewood, N.J. called the Sweet Tooth and a brainstorm that changed the course of humanity.

OK, maybe not. But there's no denying his frozen confection was a great idea.

LaMotta placed a 4-ounce slab of vanilla ice cream between two ample chocolate chip cookies and studded the thing with chocolate morsels. Then he traveled and country and tinkered in his basement, figuring a way to keep the cookies crunchy after freezing.

This would become the Chipwich. As in the Chipwiches hawked by an army of pushcart vendors in Manhattan. As in more than a billion Chipwiches sold.

"Perrier had 50 percent public recognition in New York after one year and $3 million in advertising. Chipwich after only two months had 62 percent public recognition without any advertising," a triumphant LaMotta told The Record in the fall of 1981.

LaMotta, a Chappaqua resident who died May 11 at 67, was a classic entrepreneur. The Brooklyn native had a law degree, worked as a video engineer for CBS and tried his hand at various businesses before a friend asked him to become a partner in the Sweet Tooth.

By 1981, Chipwich was a household name - as much a Reagan-era sensation as Rubik's Cube - and LaMotta's company was going gangbusters. "It's the American dream come true," he said. "You dream about the idea, have stick-to-it-ness, work hard, gamble a little and you see that the system works."

CoolBrands International, distributor of Eskimo Pie, bought the Chipwich brand for $9.2 million in 2002. Nestle acquired Eskimo Pie and Chipwich in 2007 for $18.9 million and stopped production of the Chipwich a short time afterward.

LaMotta died of a heart attack, a daughter told The New York Times. He is survived by his wife, three children and a granddaughter.