It was a strategy that ended up working for them. At the peak of his success, Ted owned something like 65 donut stores many of them named Christy's and was bringing in about $100,000 per month. Ted Ngoy has become a stranger even to himself. Mismanagement, Sloppy Hiring Practices, Lack Of Transparency. Ted now sees that the same character traits that made him take bold risks in life also made it easy for him to fall prey to gambling. Christys Doughnuts in La Habra never did great business. Monks cannot help me, he said. [10] Ngoy was hesitant to return to California for the film; he was estranged from his children and former friends. Distraught, she took an overdose of sleeping pills and fell into a coma. , some of the dough (see what we did there?) . They had a vacation home in Big Bear and a time share in Acapulco. COVID origins? He wrote a book called The Donut: History, Recipes, and Lore from Boston to Berlin and he gave really fascinating insights into donut culture, history and our relationship to donuts in America. You will end up destroying the whole family and no more relationship with the world, just finished. They saw Elvis Presley perform, and Ted played a little blackjack. He also sponsored more than 100 Cambodian refugee families and established a path of financial opportunity for them in America. "She was powerful, like your royal princess," says Ted. Upon his return to Orange County, Ngoy began gambling harder than ever stating "Monks cannot help me, Buddha cannot help me. The premise of family in the film is how hard your parents work and the sacrifices they make so that you can have a life better than they did. He joined Gamblers Anonymous but was back at the tables in no time. Broke, Ted and Christy returned to Cambodia. He subsists on small handouts from friends. "[7] In a positive review, Richard Whittaker with The Austin Chronicle said that "Gu does stellar work compiling and constructing Ngoys life story through interviews and archive and contemporary footage," and added "the animation sequences by Chapeau Studios and 1881 Animation that make the perfect drizzle of icing. Suganthinis parents hoped she would marry well. Bush, met former Presidents Reagan and Nixon, and urged other Asian immigrants to support the GOP. Tell me more about how they connected to the local community.Ted came in the 70s and it was quite homogeneously white in Orange County at the time and a lot of people had never seen an Asian person, much less heard of a place called Cambodia. He had no home and no money, and his country had been overrun by a gang of pitiless thugs. ", "I was like, 'What on earth makes this Cambodian? A bank had foreclosed on his mansion on Lake Mission Viejo. The documentary goes back and forth between Ngoy and the present-day lives of second- and third-generation donut shop kids or what Gu refers to as Donut Generation 2.0. Suganthini smuggled him food at night, and after many days she said she loved him too. In English, Mandarin and Cambodian with English subtitles; Not rated, Playing: Regency South Coast Village, Santa Ana, and in limited release where theaters are open; available via virtual cinemas, including Laemmle Theatres. The couple had flash cars, bought a million-dollar mansion with a pool and an elevator, and went on holidays abroad. He says to me, Alice, making money its so easy. Also, significantly for Ngoy, other Cambodian refugees and their children donuts. They pricked their fingers and squeezed drops of blood into a cup of water. Oh, and stop for a donut and say "hi.". until 2014 They both drank and vowed to be faithful. called Interestingly, largely because of Democratic policy we got a grant for our camera and it came from this girl, who was the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who landed in Arkansas. From the wall, he leaped onto the roof and crawled through an open window. He had hidden a dagger and he took it out and stabbed himself three times. buy a ticket Dear reader, we're asking you to help us keep local news available for all. "He was a little uneasy," Gu says. A cinematographer who has worked on commercials and movies with Rory Kennedy, Werner Herzog and Stacy Peralta, she stumbled onto the subject after her nanny brought her some "Cambodian donuts. Despite never really being a huge success under the previous owners, Christy's became popular under the ownership of the Ngoys. Im Chinese American. And a new figure emerged on the California business landscape: the Cambodian doughnut-shop owner. [5] She reached out to Ngoy and other Cambodian families who ran donut shops, and within six weeks began principal photography. Besides, he reasoned, as a politician he would not be able to gamble. He was fortunate to escape with his wife, two kids and some relatives, arriving in California where he and his family were housed in a. "[1] He says his Christian faith ultimately helped him abandon the habit. He had spent all his money on electioneering and on a failed attempt to introduce a new type of hybridised rice, which he believed would improve yields. But he was more than well-off; he was respected. It was on the market. "I spent about $100,000 of my own money, my time, my everything," he says. I dont know who I am right now, he said. ", Alice Gu's documentary, The Donut King, is available in the US now in theatres and online and will be coming to the UK in 2021, Listen to Ted Ngoy on Outlook: How the Donut King lost his crown (produced by Maryam Maruf), Ted Ngoy's autobiography is called The Donut King: the rags to riches story of a poor immigrant that changed the world. Read about our approach to external linking. Her parents wanted nothing to do with him. He slept under the bed and hid when the maids came to clean. He co-signed loans for supplies and equipment. He says his gambling is under control -- though he has no money with which to test this will power. [5] Having grown up in Los Angeles, she was doubtful when her children's nanny made a reference to "Cambodian" donuts; she thought all donuts were simply "American." [5] Upon looking into the matter, she learned about Ted Ngoy and became fascinated with the topic. Ted did a lot of the baking at night, with his youngest son, Chris, collecting a light dusting of flour as he slept beside him in the kitchen. It was helping his community and it was a bit of a cautionary tale.". Ted Ngoy: Yeah. Ted and a lot of the Asians who came aligned themselves with the Republican party. They went to Europe twice. I think there's nothing wrong for them to lie to the embassy because everybody needs a chance to survive. The Donut King Ted Ngoy is a Cambodian American entrepreneur and former owner of a chain of donut shops in California, earning him the nickname the "Donut King." . The Ngoys decided to keep uniformity amongst their shops, naming subsequent acquisitions Christy's. I am the child of immigrants who came and moved here for the American dream. It's a monster in me.". He credits his Christian faith with finally curing his gambling addiction, although he confesses he liked to bet on football games until last year. Ted wrote one day. One night, he. He began placing bets with Cambodian bookies on football and basketball games. They told him Winchells Donuts trained store managers. "I did not have time to take care of business, so business was going down. The Ngoys drove a motor home around California, opening shops in Los Angeles, Modesto, Fresno, San Jose, the Bay Area city of Brisbane, Sacramento and San Diego. Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. He said that we didnt have room for these refugees here. Ted and Suganthini sold everything they had and arrived in California on one of the first refugee flights, with their three children, an adopted nephew and two nieces. Upon deeper glance, it was so personal for me. "Some of them were cousins, uncles, nieces," says Ted. It was here that Ngoy had his first taste of gambling while placing bets at the blackjack tables. "[1], Ted Ngoy was born in the Cambodian village of Sisophon near the country's border with Thailand. Here's Why It's Especially Dangerous To Hike SoCal Mountains Right Now, How 4 Words Upended A University's Journalism Program, And Stirred A Reckoning Over Race, What A Popular Yoga Teacher's Descent Into Conspiracy Theories Says About The 'Wellness To QAnon Pipeline', Ancient Lung Disease Strikes Countertop Cutters In LA. Something else about Orange County that I found so beautiful and touching while we were making this film, there was a man who owned a donut shop in Seal Beach and his wife was stricken with cancer. In 1967, his mother sent him to study in Phnom Penh, the capital. I have to go to school.". He is working in real estate. Ted liked Cadillacs; Christy preferred Mercedes-Benz convertibles. She would forgive him when he promised to stop, and he would -- for a while. Ted was the consummate schmoozer and salesman. "What happens if I decide to jump into your room?" People made fun of his accent. He believed he could show others the path to wealth and opportunity. Money, doughnuts, sleep.. But he admits he was also aware that conquering Suganthini's heart held out the promise of a better life. According to Tao, the servants caught on to Ted's presence after a few days but didn't say anything. Ted became deeply religious. Why would anybody be interested in my story?' A child of immigrants herself, she had become curious why Californian doughnut shops were so often run by Cambodians, and why there were so many of them. [6] Gu persuaded him to and, ultimately, he regarded his return as a 'healing experience,' and his ex-wife and children have forgiven him. Ted resides in Cambodia where he splits his time between Phnom Pen and Kep, a province in Southern Cambodia that's famous for its crab fishing industry. Drenched and bleeding, he tiptoed into a hallway. He lobbied his contacts in the Republican inner circle, including Senator John McCain, and MFN status was granted permanently in 1996. At the weekend the oldest children, Chet and Savy, then nine and eight, helped out by pouring coffee, packing doughnuts and folding boxes. The Donut King is told through archival footage, animation, and interviews with family members alongside Ted Ngoy, who has tried to make peace with those who he's hurt including Mel Allison, a 91-year-old baker still at it at Winchell's. [7][3], Ngoy's fortunes improved dramatically, such that by the mid-1980s Ngoy had amassed millions of dollars through his expanding doughnut shop empire, reported as 50 locations throughout California. [2][3][4], The Donut King was directed by Alice Gu, and is her first feature film. Once, he was a millionaire who met three U.S. presidents. Ngoy bought his first doughnut shop from a couple who was retiring. Ted Ngoy (born Bun Tek Ngoy) was born into a poor Cambodian family in 1942. [5], Ngoy was hesitant to return to California for the film; he was estranged from his children and former friends. [2], In 1967, Ngoy was sent by his mother to study in the capital, Phnom Penh, where he met and married Suganthini Khoeun, the daughter of a high-ranking government official. What was it like?I spoke with him and he was in Cambodia. All the boys at his school were in love with her, and as a poor half-Chinese boy from a village near the Thai border he had no chance. The film flashes back to the horror of life in 1970s Cambodia, a tragic offshoot of the Vietnam war that eliminated thousands of lives. Theres so much competition. Ngoy doesnt remember how many stores he started or bought -- 40? They cried and prayed for the family they had left behind. Casino operators gave Ngoy free rooms, food, airfare and front-row seats to prize fights. The Donut King is a documentary directed by Alice Gu that covers the life of Ted Ngoy, one of the primary reasons behind the Cambodian American donut shop boom. Where Im going, I dont know. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. He found a second job at a gas station. Hes friends with Dana Rohrabacher. [5] "Don't worry, I will hide under your bed," said Ted. Soldiers and dogs guarded the mansion. Their youngest son Chris drove them there to pick up the money - but it went horribly wrong. Hard work. she says. He hosted Dan Quayle and Pete Wilson at his house. Chuong Lee, who has run DK's Donuts since 1988, is officially retired although she occasionally helps out at the shop. "He was afraid of being shunned and feeling lonely - but I forced him!" She would discover big losses, and they would argue, sending their children running to their rooms. Where are they now?. His story begins in the early 1970s when Ngoy was a commander in the Royal Cambodian Army, training soldiers in Thailand. Ted had met Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., [Richard] Nixon. The Donut King diretcor Alice Gu talks about what led her to make a film about Ted Ngoy, her first intro to the phenomenon of Cambodian donut shops and how she got a Wu-Tang song in the score. Those are the sounds of a man in love, her mother said. This is my own speculation, but it seemed like he had come to some peace with his dad and childhood. [9], Ngoy is the subject of the 2020 documentary film The Donut King. Interviews can sometimes feel like a therapy session. "Before I'd never gambled, but like all the compulsive gamblers in the world, first you throw in a couple of bucks, $10, $20. He began to disappear off to Las Vegas for days, losing $5,000, $7,000 a game, and neglecting his family and his doughnut empire. [6], The Donut King had its world premiere in the Documentary Feature Competition the South by Southwest film festival. The Ngoys helped hundreds of refugees find housing and apply for Social Security cards. Ngoy attempted Gamblers Anonymous, but denied it helped with his situation, stating that when he went to meetings "I cry, everybody cry. I said, 'Because it's incredible, for one. After a year of running two shops they had saved $40,000 and Ted decided to expand. In most of America there's an average of about one doughnut shop for every 30,000 people - in LA, there's one for every 7,000 people. We believe when reliable local reporting is widely available, the entire community benefits. That same year, President Gerald Ford signed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, allowing 130,000 people from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to come to the U.S. California's Governor at the time, Jerry Brown, opposed the move, saying, in a clip that's featured in The Donut King, "When we have a million people out of work, when we have our own people taxed to the hilt, I'm just very slow to just open the floodgates and say come on in unless we provide a way to put Americans to work.". Alice found it hard to persuade Ted to return to California for filming. "I came back to L.A. and I didn't know that I was going to create this crazy explosion in the business. 50? "[5] Upon looking into the matter, she learned about Ted Ngoy and became fascinated with the topic. For the next 45 days, he lived in her room. Some of his relationships didnt end well. Doughnuts offered an escape from years of welfare dependency. He had gotten his first taste of that passion years earlier. [5], The film received 69/100 on Metacritic, receiving "generally favorable reviews. He is nicknamed the "Donut King. I instantly found the Realtor, the listing agent and arranged to go and have Ted walk through his old house. . He returned to a refugee community in transition. Near the station was a doughnut shop. Like Ngoy, most of the people who leased his stores were Chinese Cambodian. Designers Andrew Hem and Charlie Le were awarded a SWSW Film special jury recognition for their poster design of The Donut King in 2020. More and more relatives came forward for sponsorship. The ubiquity and low overhead of these Cambodian mom-and-pop donut shops helped drive Dunkin' Donuts out of California in the late '90s. I always thought of it as a Plan B to come back and now, it has become the Plan A and more," Tao says. With Chuong Pek Lee, Susan Lim, Ted Ngoy, Daewon Song. The son of a peddler had no chance with such a girl, no right even to think of loving her. They married and started a family, and life was good until civil war broke out in 1970, between the government and the communist Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot. He was, however, invited to become a government adviser on commerce and agriculture. His doughnut fortune was almost gone. He cut his chest sliding under barbed wire. "It made me homesick," says Ted. When you get to the table, youre so emotional, evil in your body, he said. I told him that he has a story to tell. In return, he played their tables and lost thousands of dollars. Then, he lost it all. The United States alone is home to more than 25,000 donut shops and they produce more than 10 billion donuts each year. "I became a very, very bad man and borrowed money here and there," he says. Eager to learn the business, Ngoy approached the shop owners. Ngoy would make a habit of returning monthly to watch performers such as Tom Jones, Diana Ross, and Wayne Newton and indulging in the incentives pit bosses of major casinos offered all the while spending even larger sums at the card tables. I say, Ted, who are you? I really dont know.. To understand the politics, the Republican party at the time was a very anticommunist party. He enjoyed meeting the younger generation of doughnut makers, who are innovating and inventing new flavours. Volcanic tiki drinks. More land deals followed and he has now worked his way back to being a millionaire. One of Ngoy's first jobs in the US was as a service station attendant. When he was unable to pay back his debt, he would sign over his store to them. [1], When his wife visited California for the birthday of their grandchild in 1999, Ngoy began an affair with a young woman; Christy divorced him soon after and has not since returned to Cambodia. Under the Khmer Rouge leadership of Pol Pot people were forced to work on communal farms, and those with money or education were tortured and killed. A new documentary chronicles the fascinating saga of Ted Ngoy, "The Donut King," who made a fortune and then lost it all to a gambling addiction. His party did poorly in the 1993 and 1998 parliamentary elections, but Prime Minister Hun Sen made him an advisor on commerce and agriculture. He was Chinese Cambodian, part of a despised underclass. You see some of these families and their stores in The Donut King "It was a different take on a refugee story,". They wont trust you, he said. But on a later trip Ted had a go on the blackjack tables, and soon he was hooked on the glamour and the adrenaline. Don't die. Not many professional gamblers are bipolar women, but Cat Hulbert was one of the best - and she delighted in winning money from men. "[9] In a mixed review, Brad Wheeler of The Globe and Mail said the film is "well worth watching" while saying there "are holes in this doughnut story. [8] However, the film's directorAlice Gupersuaded him to and, ultimately, he regarded his return as a 'healing experience,' and his ex-wife and children have forgiven him. Long hours. Ted's story is told in a new documentary. It really helped put some perspective on the journey to get here from somewhere else and the struggles that people go through when they arrive in a new, strange and foreign land. Over the years, he led thousands of his countrymen into the business. [4], Ngoy secured work as a janitor with Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin, California. The Cambodians worked hard and because the whole family pitched in, they did not have to pay out any wages. Gu's documentary, Ted soon got a job working at Winchell's, which was then the dominant donut chain on the West Coast. It provided a path for refugees to settle and was a profitable business model. He landed in LA with less than $100 in his pocket - all the money he had left. Suganthini became the smiling face behind the counter, even though she hardly spoke any English. Following his time in the nation's capital, Ngoy spent time in a monastery in the Thai countryside where he spent his morning begging for alms. He had burned a lot of bridges and at the time his children hardly spoke to him. Streaming now on PBS. With the pastor's permission he went out and got two more jobs, as a sales person from 6pm to 10pm and petrol attendant from 10pm to 6am. Every time I met them I said, 'Sorry son, sorry my daughter, sorry Christy. "Ultimately, this is a story of a guy who came to the country with nothing, and with some hustle, and dreams, and a little luck, really made quite a charmed life for himself.". Ngoy built a vast donut shop empire across California and it started in 1970s Orange County. "But many of them were not related, they just lived in the same village or heard of my name. "[1] In 1977, the Ngoys took a trip to Las Vegas where Ted saw Elvis Presley. He became Ted. To think about what Ted did years ago letting bygones be bygones. If you walk into a doughnut shop in California, the chances are it's owned by a Cambodian family. Devastated that he had broken their pact, she filed for divorce. Each morning, he walked with the monks, begging for food from peasants, crying as the rocky roads tore at his bare feet. "It is the purest form of risk-taking, the distilled anxiety and thrill behind every business decision and bold declaration of love," he writes in his autobiography. Ted encouraged others to do the same. For a year and a half, I struggled with how I was going to get access to that Mission Viejo mansion. One of the tricks he learned was to bake doughnuts in small batches throughout the day to keep them fresh - and because the smell of baking was the best form of advertising. He says he hid in her room for 45 days until he was discovered. So he named his own political party the Free Development Republican Party. [8], Author Ryka Aoki describes Ngoy as legend in our Asian-American community and inspiration for her award-winning novel Light From Uncommon Stars for both his stealing books process and the legacy of Cambodian-American donut shops in Southern California. The whole community banded together and they all agreed to sell him out of donuts every morning by 9 a.m. It was a humbling experience, and the lowest point in his life. Christy's parents said they would let Ted live if he told Christy that he was a dog who had romanced other girls and had never loved her. No days off. TED NGOY HAD an unrelenting obsession during his 1975 plane ride from Southeast Asia to Southern California. Was there any tension or awkwardness when he visited California again?He came to visit California, I think, with a little bit of trepidation. Gu says Christy's family then threatened to kill Ted but his mother made a deal with them. At school, Ngoy fell in love from afar with a beautiful girl. Christy has remarried and lives in the US, Listen to Ted Ngoy on Outlook on the BBC World Service, Download the podcast for more extraordinary stories, The Donut King, is available in the US now in theatres and online and will be coming to the UK in 2021, Listen to Ted Ngoy on Outlook: How the Donut King lost his crown. "I achieved my American dream," Ted says. He wrote a note, telling her that he lived in the building opposite and was the flute player. "I had true love for her.". Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin hired Ngoy as a janitor. He became tired running doughnut shops on his own and decided to train and lease shops to his relatives and employ Cambodian refugees. Long-lost ship found at the bottom of Lake Huron, confirming story of tragic collision, TikTok to set default daily time limit of up to 60 minutes for minors, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, TikTok faces bans in a number of countries over security fears. Rose Donuts and Cafe "I cry. And then I hate the gambling and then I hate that I treat Christy so badly, treat my children so badly, because of the gambling, so I hate myself," he says. A 2005 profile in the Los Angeles Times described him as "broke, homeless, and dependent on the goodwill of his few remaining friends." Today, he makes a living selling real estate in Cambodia. No political life, no religious life, just work, work, he said. The family members worked 17 hours a day and saved for a year. They barely talked to him. He woke her up and she was about to scream for help, when she realised it was her classmate. They would speed through Phnom Penh on his motorcycle, the couple recalled. His story has been told through different angles in a couple of articles. Working all hours, Ted and Christy knew very little about what was happening back home in Cambodia, but what they heard was bad. It also reminds us that several U.S. presidents welcomed a flood of refugees with open arms. "If I need to shower, I knock on the door, 'Lady can I take a shower?' Doing this film was really an exploration for me of understanding where you come from. Hes really funny. In 1985, Ngoy and his wife became American citizens assuming the American names of Ted and Christy, respectively, and were enjoying a lavish lifestyle including a million dollar home at Lake Mission Viejo, a vacation home in Big Bear, expensive cars, and vacations to Europe. And he said he saw her heart break before his very eyes. It's something Ted feels a bit bad about. 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