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. But the situation at home was increasingly dangerous and on his last trip, in April 1975, the capital fell. The family members worked 17 hours a day and saved for a year. "It made me homesick," says Ted. She said he would be throwing his money away. "I'd want [people] to know about not only the journey of the donut itself but the story of the people behind it, the people making the donuts," Tao says. He began placing bets with Cambodian bookies on football and basketball games. 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. 50? Ted Ngoy (born Bun Tek Ngoy) was born into a poor Cambodian family in 1942. He was, however, invited to become a government adviser on commerce and agriculture. What drew you to Teds story at the start?Finding out about his story, its fascinating a guy who comes here penniless and becomes a Donut King. [4], Ngoy secured work as a janitor with Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin, California. "I learned to bake, to take care of payroll, cleaning, sales - everything," he says. When he completed his three-month training, Winchell's gave him a shop to run on Balboa Pier, a tourist spot on the Newport peninsula not far from Tustin. He subsists on small handouts from friends. And that's what he did. You will end up destroying the whole family and no more relationship with the world, just finished. And she said she knew a lot of people in her parents generation who are lifelong Republicans and thats why they hate the Democratic party. [5], The film received 69/100 on Metacritic, receiving "generally favorable reviews. and California landscape with a familiar coat yellow strip mall signs with red lettering reading Christys Donuts. War erupted in 1970. "They forgive me fully. After cry, go back gambling." Despite never really being a huge success under the previous owners, Christy's became popular under the ownership of the Ngoys. 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. Every weekday, you'll get fresh, community-driven stories that catch you up with our independent local news. The families who followed Ngoys lead learned to run businesses and picked up English. While working a second job at a gas station, Ngoy took notice of a busy local doughnut shop and inquired of its operators about learning the business. After a year of running two shops they had saved $40,000 and Ted decided to expand. He would forge her signature on checks and even borrow money from relatives who leased stores from him. Ted Ngoy, who was known as the doughnut king, lives in Phnom Penh. Doing this film was really an exploration for me of understanding where you come from. He wrote a note, telling her that he lived in the building opposite and was the flute player. From the wall, he leaped onto the roof and crawled through an open window. Aside from what By 1985, 10 years after arriving in the US as refugees, Ted and Christy were millionaires, owning around 60 doughnut shops. Through the maneuvering of his brother-in-law, chief of police and briefly future president of Cambodia, Sak Sutsakhan, Ngoy was promoted to the rank of major and appointed military attache at Cambodia's embassy in Thailand. 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. "[10], Whittaker said that "as Asian Americans face increasing racism, its closing message about how immigrant communitiesdefine America has only become more timely."[8]. Ted kept a low profile until the LA filmmaker Alice Gu got in touch a couple of years ago. I thought I would just get an exterior scene for context. , the It was small amounts first but he was soon blowing bigger figures and he couldn't seem to stop. Through doughnuts, many Cambodians stepped out of isolation and into the American mainstream. When he was working in the donut shop, he went to his sponsor and said he was having a hard time. "It's a crazy story, but it's true," says Ted, now 78. Ted became known as the Donut King - or Uncle Ted, because of the many Cambodian immigrants he'd sponsored. His tenants opened their own stores and leased them out. 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. I instantly found the Realtor, the listing agent and arranged to go and have Ted walk through his old house. LAist.com/radio. Next to the petrol station there was a doughnut shop called DK Donuts. Ngoy bought stores in Fullerton, Anaheim, Anaheim Hills and Buena Park over the next year. He wanted to be with her, but he had no one else to manage the shop. Yes, you read that right. They did business on a handshake, he said, and his tenants always paid. 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. 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. After earning a communications degree at UC San Diego, Tao worked for a while at a news station but wasn't enthused about that career path. They cried and prayed for the family they had left behind. COVID origins? Gu says Christy's family then threatened to kill Ted but his mother made a deal with them. This is going to happen.'". BC Donuts And then we started communicating, bringing back and forth the messages," Ted says. The family were housed in a hastily erected refugee camp on a marine training base, Camp Pendleton. Even in gambling. It took longer than 40 years. What is Ted up to in Cambodia nowadays?Ted is doing well. He had no home and no money, and his country had been overrun by a gang of pitiless thugs. Im also, again, the daughter of Chinese American immigrants and my dad was a big Republican party supporter. ", He communicates with them almost every day. . After a little research, Gu discovered that a huge number of California's independent donut shops, maybe 80-90%, are owned by Cambodian Americans, mostly thanks to Ngoy. Ngoy would open more shops and lease them to fellow refugees. Six weeks later, Gu and her producer, Jos Nuez, were on a plane to Cambodia where they spent three days interviewing Ngoy and shooting B-roll. When you hook up with gambling, your life's finished. They pricked their fingers and squeezed drops of blood into a cup of water. One night, he saw Suganthini on her balcony, and decided it was time to make his move. Buddha cannot help me.. He was Chinese Cambodian, part of a despised underclass. His doughnut fortune was almost gone. ', "If you could turn the clock around, I would do that. Late at night, Ngoy would put Suganthini on his back and climb down the roof, then down the coconut tree. Upon deeper glance, it was so personal for me. Ted's parents and sisters fled across the border to Thailand, and Ted got a call from the US embassy there asking if he would sponsor them to live in the US. He bought a bigger doughnut shop, and offered to lease the original Christy's to a family of Cambodian refugees, who had been working in fast food outlets on low wages. Ngoy asked to visit. Ngoy doesnt remember how many stores he started or bought -- 40? [9], Ngoy is the subject of the 2020 documentary film The Donut King. "[8] Giving it three-out-of-four stars, Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com called the The Donut King "a heartwarming albeit scattered documentary from director Alice Gu," and praised the film for "its balance of poppy visuals and detailed history. Despite the villa's armed security guards and guard dogs, one rainy night Ted climbed up a coconut tree and over the barbed wire and made his way in through a bathroom window. Her name was Suganthini Khoeun. You will end up destroying the whole family and no more relationship with the world, just finished. "Growing up, when you look on the screen, there's not a lot of Asian representation. When I become big guy, then I cannot go gamble because people wont vote for you. "You can't find any prettier woman besides her.". In 1975, Ted Ngoy fled the war in Cambodia with his wife and three kids and arrived in America as a penniless refugee. I just do it.. And she let me in to take a shower. Each morning, he walked with the monks, begging for food from peasants, crying as the rocky roads tore at his bare feet. And a new figure emerged on the California business landscape: the Cambodian doughnut-shop owner. "I cry. Seasonal Halloween donuts at DK's Donuts in Santa Monica. He also figured that as a prominent politician, he would be forced to control his gambling habit. I did not have time to expand. The family were among the many tens of thousands of . "Everybody's happy to see me now, because I changed from the bad guy to the good guy.". If you can dream it, they're probably mixing it somewhere on property. "It went like fire on the hill, so fast," says Ted. LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network. For a year and a half, I struggled with how I was going to get access to that Mission Viejo mansion. "New documentary 'The Donut King' follows Cambodian refugee Ted Ngoy's journey to multi-million dollar empire", "Review: A Shakespearean SoCal tragedy, 'The Donut King' charts the rise and fall of Ted Ngoy", "Director Alice Gu Wants You to Meet The Donut King", "The Donut King who went full circle - from rags to riches, twice", "Review: The Donut King, a sweet documentary that doesn't tell the hole truth", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Donut_King&oldid=1131760803, This page was last edited on 5 January 2023, at 16:51. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. He hosted Dan Quayle and Pete Wilson at his house. [1], In 2013, he was living in Phnom Penh working in real estate. [6], The Donut King had its world premiere in the Documentary Feature Competition the South by Southwest film festival. Was there any tension or awkwardness when he visited California again?He came to visit California, I think, with a little bit of trepidation. Ngoy forged her signature on checks. 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. Ngoy and his family enjoyed the fruits of their labor and at one point moved into a 7,000-square-foot mansion in Mission Viejo. Ted wrote one day. I ended up not sharing that donut. When Christy returned to California for the birthday of a grandchild in 1999, Ngoy met a young woman and brought her to live in his house. 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. Ngoy ended his political career abruptly in 2002, breaking with two powerful allies, the commerce minister and the head of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce. He said hes Chinese Cambodian and we spoke Mandarin for a couple of minutes. He would have no more donuts to sell so he could be with his wife for the rest of the day. His gesture went unreciprocated for days. The film flashes back to the horror of life in 1970s Cambodia, a tragic offshoot of the Vietnam war that eliminated thousands of lives. How did those scenes end up happening?I asked him to travel to California again. "It was a different take on a refugee story,". Night after night, he watched customers come and go. Driving back with $85,000 cash in the boot of the car, they were stopped by the police; they had fallen behind with payments, so the car showed up as stolen. Casino operators gave Ngoy free rooms, food, airfare and front-row seats to prize fights. called But while she was gone Ted had an affair. But one night, he had an idea. I say, Ted, who are you? I really dont know.. This is my own speculation, but it seemed like he had come to some peace with his dad and childhood. When people know about the bad reputation, people are not going to vote for me. Money, doughnuts, sleep.. Devastated that he had broken their pact, she filed for divorce. Ngoy bought his first doughnut. and His few shirts and pants hang from a clothesline. The family members worked 17 hours a day and saved for a year. Once a paragon in the community, refugees now avoided him for fear of being asked for a loan. It was here that Ngoy had his first taste of gambling while placing bets at the blackjack tables. 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