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Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin hired Ngoy as a janitor. But the name was misleading. Today, at 62, the doughnut king is broke, homeless and dependent on the goodwill of his few remaining friends. Working all hours, Ted and Christy knew very little about what was happening back home in Cambodia, but what they heard was bad. LAist.com/radio. [2][3][4], The Donut King was directed by Alice Gu, and is her first feature film. One by one, Ted lost all of his donut shops. "[1] In 1977, the Ngoys took a trip to Las Vegas where Ted saw Elvis Presley. He is nicknamed the "Donut King. Perpetually in need of cash, he'd ask the people running his donut shops for loans. Her name was Suganthini Khoeun. 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. The stranger who crept into her room more than 35 years ago is a stranger again. But then one of Suganthini's servants appeared at his door with a reply. "I achieved my American dream," Ted says. "I did not have time to take care of business, so business was going down. I instantly found the Realtor, the listing agent and arranged to go and have Ted walk through his old house. While he was recovering in hospital, Suganthini also made an attempt on her life. Cambodia was having its first democratic elections since the war and he wanted to stand for office to help rebuild his country. Los Angeles Times Ted managed to escape on the last flight out of Phnom Penh but Suganthini's parents were left behind. It was a strategy that ended up working for them. Theres also the moment where Ted revisits his former home in Mission Viejo. The Donut King is a 2020 American documentary film which tells the life story of California donut shop owner Ted Ngoy. Los Angeles Times Ngoy's epic rags-to-riches-to-rags story has been chronicled before (in the He also sponsored more than 100 Cambodian refugee families and established a path of financial opportunity for them in America. 50? "He was a little uneasy," Gu says. Christy has remarried and lives in Lake Forest, not far from their three adult children, who all live in Orange County. Suganthini became the smiling face behind the counter, even though she hardly spoke any English. Baby Yoda cocktails. Ted became deeply religious. 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. Over the years, he says he sponsored more than 100 Cambodian families that wanted to come to the U.S. Once again Suganthini was the friendly face welcoming customers, and when she became a US citizen she took the name Christy as her own. He was raised by his mother, who was from Shantou, Guangdong, and who only spoke Chinese. He had no home and no money, and his country had been overrun by a gang of pitiless thugs. [5] She reached out to Ngoy and other Cambodian families who ran donut shops, and within six weeks began principal photography. His story has been told through different angles in a couple of articles. Ted Ngoy, who was known as the doughnut king, lives in Phnom Penh. The ubiquity and low overhead of these Cambodian mom-and-pop donut shops helped drive Dunkin' Donuts out of California in the late '90s. He believed he could show others the path to wealth and opportunity. At loose ends, she returned to Los Angeles and, once again, started helping with the family business. It was here that Ngoy had his first taste of gambling while placing bets at the blackjack tables. I always thought of it as a Plan B to come back and now, it has become the Plan A and more," Tao says. By 2005, after a failed political career in Cambodia, Ngoy was penniless and living on the porch of a fellow Parkcrest Christian Church parishioner's mobile home. Ngoy's gambling had progressed from the card tables to placing bets on sports games with Cambodian bookies. Everybody cry," he said. 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. He took a real estate class but said he couldnt retain the details. The film flashes back to the horror of life in 1970s Cambodia, a tragic offshoot of the Vietnam war that eliminated thousands of lives. 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. He says his gambling is under control -- though he has no money with which to test this will power. And he saw an opportunity. 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. Chuong Lee Tao passed down DKs Donuts in Santa Monica to her daughter Mayly Tao, who updated the shop with a vast menu and a worldwide social media following. In 1990, after disappearing for another disastrous trip to Las Vegas, he flew to Washington, D.C., and joined a Buddhist monastery. I dont think you dare come to my room, she responded. Ted now had a new passion - politics. [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. In doing the research and finding that it was President [Gerald] Ford who issued the executive order to receive the refugees, a Republican president that was a huge surprise to me given that during the time that we were making this film we were hearing Donald Trumps rhetoric. The two had met as teenage classmates in Phnom Penh. She later discovered that they were among the first to be executed by the Khmer Rouge. The Cambodians worked hard and because the whole family pitched in, they did not have to pay out any wages. And that's what he did. Tell us about your wife. He had gotten his first taste of that passion years earlier. The next day, he flew back to Los Angeles leaving behind his new wife and their two children. 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. By 1985, 10 years after arriving in the US as refugees, Ted and Christy were millionaires, owning around 60 doughnut shops. All night long Ted would watch people buying coffee and doughnuts, and he realised it was a good business. After setting up a sweet shop of his own, he helped fellow . He was born Bun Tek Ngoy. Former staff writer Vera Castaneda covered arts, entertainment, lifestyle and issues related to Orange County for TimesOC, a community newspaper owned by the Los Angeles Times. The family were housed in a hastily erected refugee camp on a marine training base, Camp Pendleton. Despite his success, he said, he felt unhappy and isolated. When he couldn't pay them back because he had gambled the money away, Ted signed away his ownership stake in those stores. "It was a different take on a refugee story,". He says to me, Alice, making money its so easy. The entire family Christy and the three kids worked alongside him. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, and the Cambodian genocide began. It was on the market. goes to your local theater. in Santa Monica. Their fairy tale romance is so distant, she said, its as if it happened to someone else. 2023 Southern California Public Radio - All Rights Reserved, Rising Egg Prices Are For The Birds. When they were released, the cash was gone. Then he pulled a knife. 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. I wanted to tell this story in a way that was inspirational and optimistic. He saw an opportunity to expand his business and help the large number of poor, unassimilated Cambodians who had fled the Khmer Rouge to the United States. In this condensed and edited conversation, Gu talks about the American dream, Cambodian American Republicans, 1970s Orange County and the best donut she ate during filming. I was addicted to a feeling, and money was simply the needle that delivered the toxic dose," he writes in his autobiography, also called The Donut King. Ted Ngoy (born Bun Tek Ngoy; 1942) is a Cambodian American entrepreneur and former owner of a chain of doughnut shops in California. This documentary tells Ted Ngoy's story that is one of fate, love, survival, hard knocks, and redemption. 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. And it was actually a donut that I refused at first from Mayly Tao, the Donut Princess. Soldiers and dogs guarded the mansion. I never loved you.' "When Alice called me, she described something that I have always wanted to tell but never thought that it would get picked up anywhere," Tao says. [8], After a particularly devastating gambling loss in 1990, Ngoy flew to Washington, D.C. and joined a Buddhist monastery where he spent a month meditating. "[10], Whittaker said that "as Asian Americans face increasing racism, its closing message about how immigrant communitiesdefine America has only become more timely."[8]. Once back in Orange County, he bet more than ever. I did not have time to expand. When the couple recovered, her parents finally allowed them to marry. A bank had foreclosed on his mansion on Lake Mission Viejo. It was hurtful. He did not fare well in either the 1993 or 1998 parliamentary elections, but his friend, Prime Minister Hun Sen, made him an advisor on commerce and agriculture. His party did poorly in the 1993 and 1998 parliamentary elections, but Prime Minister Hun Sen made him an advisor on commerce and agriculture. I told them I'm very sorry 1,000 times. How did those scenes end up happening?I asked him to travel to California again. His family didn't want to see him, and nobody offered him work, not even baking doughnuts. When you get to the table, youre so emotional, evil in your body, he said. , the Ngoy had become an example to other Cambodian immigrants, who began to follow his business model for their own entrepreneurial endeavors. His gesture went unreciprocated for days. But it was really the immigrant story. Christy was in the front and made a lot of inroads with the community and built a lot of bridges. I think there's nothing wrong for them to lie to the embassy because everybody needs a chance to survive. 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. Her daughter, Mayly Tao, has taken over the reigns of DK's. But he was more than well-off; he was respected. 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. Her parents wanted nothing to do with him. People made fun of his accent. Tao did everything in her power to help Gu. He subsists on small handouts from friends. Phnom Penh Post Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. She ended up threatening to starve herself, saying, "If you won't let me be with him, I'm not going to eat.". At each stop, they set up the business and trained the families who leased it. Ngoy built a vast donut shop empire across California and it started in 1970s Orange County. The Ngoys went to Las Vegas for the first time in 1977. Doughnut revenue put their children through college. [6][3], Ngoy bought additional doughnut shops in Orange County. Twice he joined a Buddhist monastery. 'How I got rich beating men at their own game'. One of their sons is a financial consultant; another is a computer-networking technician. Near the station was a doughnut shop. "And she says, 'Because Cambodian people make them.'". The couple had flash cars, bought a million-dollar mansion with a pool and an elevator, and went on holidays abroad. "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.". Eventually Cambodians owned so many doughnut shops in California that they dominated the market, pushing Winchell's into second place. They did business on a handshake, he said, and his tenants always paid. And she let me in to take a shower. The film details how Ngoy fled Cambodia with his family during the Vietnam War and later went on to build a donut shop empire, only to lose it all because of a gambling addiction. Out any wages ] she reached out to Ngoy and other Cambodian families ran. People make them. ' '' years ago is a computer-networking technician rich beating men at own! Lives in Phnom Penh out to Ngoy and other Cambodian families who it! To placing bets on sports games with Cambodian bookies Ngoy bought additional doughnut in. 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