Doughnut revenue put their children through college. When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975, they knew they couldn't go home. Although there is still some resentment towards him in the Cambodian community, whose hard-earned cash he gambled away, he is also revered by many. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. They took American names. There were some hurt relationships. Seasonal Halloween donuts at DK's Donuts in Santa Monica. In less than two years, while working on other jobs and projects, Gu directed and shot the 94-minute documentary. When he lost their money he would just sign over the shop to them - without telling Christy, whose signature he forged. [10] Ngoy was hesitant to return to California for the film; he was estranged from his children and former friends. Then I went to America, Ngoy said, and created the doughnut world.. 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. Over the years, he led thousands of his countrymen into the business. One night, during his shift at a gas station, the scent of freshly baked goods wafted toward him. He took two additional jobs, working almost 24 hours per day. Ngoy built a vast donut shop empire across California and it started in 1970s Orange County. It's something Ted feels a bit bad about. 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. 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. Thank you for investing in your neighborhood. He said hes Chinese Cambodian and we spoke Mandarin for a couple of minutes. They have social media and know how to work it to innovate their parents old donut shops with a worldwide following. His story begins in the early 1970s when Ngoy was a commander in the Royal Cambodian Army, training soldiers in Thailand. They would speed through Phnom Penh on his motorcycle, the couple recalled. Next to the petrol station there was a doughnut shop called DK Donuts. I just do it.. It was a strategy that ended up working for them. He had no way of making a living until a Chinese contact from better days asked him to help out with a real estate deal. The family were housed in a hastily erected refugee camp on a marine training base, Camp Pendleton. Will Orange County's Fledgling Clean Power Agency Survive? Their fairy tale romance is so distant, she said, its as if it happened to someone else. Ted was the consummate schmoozer and salesman. DK's Donuts Cambodia was planning its first elections in 1993, and well-to-do emigres from California were returning to run for office. He would forge her signature on checks and even borrow money from relatives who leased stores from him. Some of his relationships didnt end well. He lobbied his contacts in the Republican inner circle, including Senator John McCain, and MFN status was granted permanently in 1996. Her father was a high-ranking government official. Cambodian Americans control an estimated 80 percent of the donut market in California thanks largely to one man- Ted Ngoy, otherwise known as The Donut King. Also, significantly for Ngoy, other Cambodian refugees and their children donuts. "That's why I want to tell the world, 'Do not gamble.' "I just wanted to raise pigs and chickens and have enough meat and eggs to take to . Naturally he agreed, and set his sisters up with doughnut shops. [2][3][4], The Donut King was directed by Alice Gu, and is her first feature film. He also figured that as a prominent politician, he would be forced to control his gambling habit. Working all hours, Ted and Christy knew very little about what was happening back home in Cambodia, but what they heard was bad. As word of Ted's success spread, Cambodian immigrants started seeking him out when they arrived in Southern California. Upon his return to Orange County, Ngoy began gambling harder than ever stating "Monks cannot help me, Buddha cannot help me. Streaming now on PBS. In Cambodia, Ngoy formed the Free Development Republican Party. He became Ted. They pricked their fingers and squeezed drops of blood into a cup of water. Once, he enjoyed the warmth of family and the respect of his community. The Ngoys helped hundreds of refugees find housing and apply for Social Security cards. You will end up destroying the whole family and no more relationship with the world, just finished. 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. At each stop, they set up the business and trained the families who leased it. "Before I'd never gambled, but like all the compulsive gamblers in the world, first you throw in a couple of bucks, $10, $20. Beautiful views aren't the only thing drawing Angelenos to the region. But Cambodians were leaving the business, tired of working 17-hour days and squeezing a 13-cent profit from every 65-cent doughnut. By 1976, Ted had saved up enough money to buy his own shop, which he named Christy's. "[1] He says his Christian faith ultimately helped him abandon the habit. "It went like fire on the hill, so fast," says Ted. "It made me homesick," says Ted. War erupted in 1970. He was Chinese Cambodian, part of a despised underclass. Ngoy tried Gamblers Anonymous. [4], Ngoy secured work as a janitor with Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin, California. What you've done is incredible.' Ted Ngoy, his wife and family pick up the story and walk us through their unbelievable experience, flying to a . Using his Republican Party connections, Ngoy successfully lobbied the U.S. for most-favored-nation trade status for Cambodia in 1995, helping create a modern garment industry and thousands of jobs. In 1990, after disappearing for another disastrous trip to Las Vegas, he flew to Washington, D.C., and joined a Buddhist monastery. "It was a different take on a refugee story,". On hearing the music float across the quiet city, Suganthini's mother remarked that whoever was playing must be in love. Your Guide To Everything Boozy You Can Order, A Los Angeles Family Seeks Answers And Accountability After Black Mom Dies In Childbirth. When you hook up with gambling, your life's finished. "He was afraid of being shunned and feeling lonely - but I forced him!" "This story sheds light on refugees in a positive way, about what happens when they're given an opportunity," she says. 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. [5], The film received 69/100 on Metacritic, receiving "generally favorable reviews. On Sundays he would go to the church where her son was the pastor and join in Bible studies. 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. Two days after Gu's out-of-the-blue call to DK's Donuts, she was talking to Ngoy in Cambodia. In a year Ted had saved enough to put down a deposit on a second doughnut shop, a "mom-and-pop" shop called Christy's. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Key grant funding to help O.C. But it was really the immigrant story. The family members worked 17 hours a day and saved for a year. He did as he was told, but then pulled out a knife and stabbed himself, declaring he would rather die than live without her. Ted Ngoy By 1985, 10 years after arriving in the US as refugees, Ted and Christy were millionaires, owning around 60 doughnut shops. [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. After cry, go back gambling." "Using money to provide for others is a feeling as powerful as any drug," he later wrote. Ted Ngoy, who was known as the doughnut king, lives in Phnom Penh. When he was working in the donut shop, he went to his sponsor and said he was having a hard time. Long hours. 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. goes to your local theater. Tell us about your wife. I say, Ted, who are you? I really dont know.. Her name was Suganthini Khoeun. Some of the interviews in the film seemed that way.It was actually really wonderful to speak with particularly his older kids Chet and Savy, who until that interview, they didnt have much to do with him. The family were housed in a hastily erected refugee camp on a marine training base, Camp Pendleton. To understand the politics, the Republican party at the time was a very anticommunist party. Dear reader, we're asking you to help us keep local news available for all. Ngoy returned to Cambodia without his wife (they would subsequently divorce) and mounted a failed political campaign. I am the child of immigrants who came and moved here for the American dream. Since many of them had gotten their start in the business and the United States thanks to Ngoy, they were happy to help. Over four years nearly two million Cambodians were either executed, or died of starvation, disease and overwork. I ate the whole thing. Her parents and cousins hid behind curtains so they could hear him break off the relationship. But while she was gone Ted had an affair. Like Ngoy, most of the people who leased his stores were Chinese Cambodian. He wrapped the note around a stone, and threw it down. Today, at 62, the doughnut king is broke, homeless and dependent on the goodwill of his few remaining friends. the ", "I was like, 'What on earth makes this Cambodian? Instantly acquiring the rank of Major, Ted and his young family moved to Bangkok, and every month he travelled back to Cambodia to collect the wages for his soldiers. "This friendly voice picks up the phone, a young voice in that perfectly American accented English. A week later, Suganthini wrote back, and the two began a secret correspondence. A bank had foreclosed on his mansion on Lake Mission Viejo. One day in 2018, she cold-called In 1967, his mother sent him to study in Phnom Penh, the capital. Suganthini was terrified, but she let the stranger stay. He had to guess which room was hers. This is an incredible story of how he helped people. Refugees who had sought his advice now avoided him, fearing he would ask for a loan. The rise & fall of The Donut King. At loose ends, she returned to Los Angeles and, once again, started helping with the family business. At a news conference, he dissolved his party and accused the government of corruption. Tao did everything in her power to help Gu. Ted negotiated well and got a good commission. They both drank and vowed to be faithful. Nearly every independent donut shop in every Southern California mini-mall hides a story and many of them start with an unlikely impresario, a Cambodian refugee named Ted Ngoy. The Donut King: Directed by Alice Gu. The whole community banded together and they all agreed to sell him out of donuts every morning by 9 a.m. And of the 5,000 independent doughnut shops in California today, around 80% are still Cambodian, she says. 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. Theres this portion in the film that goes into Ted and his ex-wife Christys experiences in Orange County during the 70s. Ted is my great uncle,'" Gu says. "'You want to tell my story? Ngoy also involved himself in American politics, joining the Republican Party and hosting fundraisers for George H. W. Bush and encouraged fellow Cambodian immigrants to support the GOP. 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. Everybody cry, he said. They wont trust you, he said. , some of the dough (see what we did there?) Gu first needed to find Ted Ngoy but she had no idea how to do it. Over the next few years, he went back every month or so, seeing Tom Jones, Diana Ross and Wayne Newton -- and betting ever-larger sums. "Some of them were cousins, uncles, nieces," says Ted. Drenched and bleeding, he tiptoed into a hallway. Christy and Ted bought a $1-million, three-story, 7,000-square-foot house with palm trees and a three-car garage on Lake Mission Viejo in Orange County. Ted liked Cadillacs; Christy preferred Mercedes-Benz convertibles. This is my own speculation, but it seemed like he had come to some peace with his dad and childhood. When there was an overrun of pink doughnut boxes Ted bought them cut-price, and the pink boxes became his trademark. 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.". The stranger who crept into her room more than 35 years ago is a stranger again. What was it like?I spoke with him and he was in Cambodia. But the situation at home was increasingly dangerous and on his last trip, in April 1975, the capital fell. Theres so much competition. "He's like, 'You know what? Don't die. Ted joined the Republican Party, held fundraisers for George H.W. He left behind his new wife and their two children, and what he had seen as his last chance at redemption. His sponsor told him people will have their prejudices but they mean well. Las Vegas was the new thing, he said, besides making money and making doughnuts,. Then Ngoy would fly to Las Vegas without telling her, sometimes staying as long as a week. Their youngest son Chris drove them there to pick up the money - but it went horribly wrong. Suganthinis parents hoped she would marry well. Monks cannot help me, he said. He borrowed money from relatives who had leased his doughnut shops. Designers Andrew Hem and Charlie Le were awarded a SWSW Film special jury recognition for their poster design of The Donut King in 2020. Few foods are as universally adored as fried dough. Hard work. Where Im going, I dont know. And a new figure emerged on the California business landscape: the Cambodian doughnut-shop owner. Along with thousands of other Cambodian refugees, the Ngoys ended up at Camp Pendleton. They barely talked to him. Ted's story is told in a new documentary. "It's a devil, it's a monster. He says his gambling is under control -- though he has no money with which to test this will power. One night, he. Suganthinis parents kept her locked in her room for days. It was hurtful. The other discovery for me was what I called Donut Generation 2.0, the kids who go to take over the parents mom and pop shops. In the end, filming the documentary was a healing experience for Ted. 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. Over the years, Ted and Christy sponsored more than 100 families, often hosting them before setting them up with homes, loans, and doughnut shops. Now, he is in real estate development," Gu says. He subsists on small handouts from friends. Perpetually in need of cash, he'd ask the people running his donut shops for loans. Ngoys wife hated his gambling. Ted was dismayed. As many as I could.". Then he would return to Vegas in an attempt to win back what he had lost. It was here that Ngoy had his first taste of gambling while placing bets at the blackjack tables. "You can't find any prettier woman besides her.". Ted and Christy are divorced. The next day, he flew back to Los Angeles leaving behind his new wife and their two children. He had burned a lot of bridges and at the time his children hardly spoke to him. After cry, go back gambling.. Distraught, she took an overdose of sleeping pills and fell into a coma. None of the people Ngoy helped get started lent him a hand, he said: I trained them. He was a fraud, he said. No days off. 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. He landed in LA with less than $100 in his pocket - all the money he had left. In order to be allowed to leave the camp and find work, they needed an American sponsor, who would find them a job and somewhere to live. I think there's nothing wrong for them to lie to the embassy because everybody needs a chance to survive. Filmmaker Alice Gu (left) poses with Mayly Tao outside DK's Donuts in Santa Monica. It actually made national, if not international, news about the kindness of these people in Orange County. Ngoy bought his first doughnut. About 30 Christys Doughnuts were still in operation, as were hundreds of other Cambodian-owned doughnut shops. Gu didn't know about any of that before she started developing this project. Ngoy lived in an attic apartment a few blocks from the Khoeun familys mansion. [4], Despite the wealth he had amassed and his importance within his community, Ngoy felt dissatisfied, remarking that he had "No political life, no religious life, just work, work. Did working on this film change or contribute to your perspective of the American dream or immigrant stories?It seems like these days the American dream is harder and harder to attain. He bought donut shop after donut shop, leasing them to other Cambodian immigrants, who ran the stores with their families, and taking a monthly cut of each store's profits. His story has been told through different angles in a couple of articles. He wrote a note, telling her that he lived in the building opposite and was the flute player. 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. The Donut King comes out Friday, Oct. 30, online, and when you she says. He began placing bets with Cambodian bookies on football and basketball games. . In The Donut King, we learn that a teenage Ted won over his wife, Christy (ne Suganthini), by spending 45 straight days laying under her bed.
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