He did as he was told, but then pulled out a knife and stabbed himself, declaring he would rather die than live without her. Some of those he borrowed from were the people he had leased doughnut shops to. 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. Suganthinis parents kept her locked in her room for days. 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. Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin hired Ngoy as a janitor. Then he would return to Vegas in an attempt to win back what he had lost. He ran to the shop across the street where he bought a donut. The world moves so quickly now, but I do believe that it is still real and it is still possible. [1], That's why I want to tell the world, "Do not gamble." Ngoy became a trainee and took over a Winchell's in Newport Beach. Once, I said I would die if something happened to him, Christy said of her ex-husband. Next to the petrol station there was a doughnut shop called DK Donuts. [9], Ngoy is the subject of the 2020 documentary film The Donut King. NICK STREET Channy is a stocky man in his mid-forties, and he runs USA Donut in Boeung Keng Kang with his wife. You cannot resist against it.. I go to borrow. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Read about our approach to external linking. A day before he left, his eldest son said if you have $3.2 million you can buy it. When he was unable to pay back his debt, he would sign over his store to them. When he lost he would lash out, smashing doors, breaking furniture and frightening the children. He woke her up and she was about to scream for help, when she realised it was her classmate. I thought it was so profound that this was the very same community that just a couple of decades earlier were making fun of somebody who worked at the counter and had an accent. He hosted Dan Quayle and Pete Wilson at his house. 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. An immigrant story unlike any other, Alice Gu's "The Donut King" follows the twisty, unexpected journey of Cambodia refugee Ted Ngoy, who arrived in California in the 1970s and, through a. On one of his Las Vegas trips, Ngoy took up gambling. He found a second job at a gas station. Mag's Donuts Im also, again, the daughter of Chinese American immigrants and my dad was a big Republican party supporter. Doughnut revenue put their children through college. All three were taken to the police station but they were too scared to mention the cash in the boot. Ted liked Cadillacs; Christy preferred Mercedes-Benz convertibles. Broke, Ted and Christy returned to Cambodia. Ted Ngoy made a fortune in doughnuts. His mother raised him in a rural village near Cambodias border with Thailand. They took American names. When you hook up with gambling, your life's finished. [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. The Ngoys went to Las Vegas for the first time in 1977. Ted became deeply religious. 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. After completing the company's training program, they gave him the keys to a store in Newport Beach. Christy was in the front and made a lot of inroads with the community and built a lot of bridges. 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. "I cry. "[1] In 1977, the Ngoys took a trip to Las Vegas where Ted saw Elvis Presley. All night long Ted would watch people buying coffee and doughnuts, and he realised it was a good business. I told them I'm very sorry 1,000 times. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. 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. 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. It actually made national, if not international, news about the kindness of these people in Orange County. He would have no more donuts to sell so he could be with his wife for the rest of the day. He took a chance and opened a bedroom door - and there was Suganthini, fast asleep. I say, Ted, who are you? I really dont know.. What was it like?I spoke with him and he was in Cambodia. And he has a new goal. Christy would search for him in the casinos, the children in tow. Once again Suganthini was the friendly face welcoming customers, and when she became a US citizen she took the name Christy as her own. 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. I wanted to tell this story in a way that was inspirational and optimistic. DK's Donuts Eventually Cambodians owned so many doughnut shops in California that they dominated the market, pushing Winchell's into second place. He also figured that as a prominent politician, he would be forced to control his gambling habit. He says he hid in her room for 45 days until he was discovered. "It's a crazy story, but it's true," says Ted, now 78. Then, he lost it all. "He was afraid of being shunned and feeling lonely - but I forced him!" I gave her my spiel, and she said, 'Well, you've called the right person. 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. 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. Also, significantly for Ngoy, other Cambodian refugees and their children donuts. Ted worked as the church janitor but he soon realised earning $500 a month wouldn't be enough to support his family. Like Ngoy, most of the people who leased his stores were Chinese Cambodian. Ted now had a new passion - politics. But within weeks he was back on a plane to Vegas. The Ngoys helped hundreds of refugees find housing and apply for Social Security cards. One night, he saw Suganthini on her balcony, and decided it was time to make his move. Cambodia was poor and under-developed after years of war. The family were among the many tens of thousands of . In 1993 Ted and Christy moved back to Cambodia. Within a decade, he had become a multimillionaire with a lakeside mansion . 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." . . He tasted his first donut at a Tustin gas station, trained as a baker in a La Mirada Winchells and ran his own Winchells store in the Balboa Peninsula. Tao did everything in her power to help Gu. Ngoy showed them baking and bookkeeping. I cant take credit for it, but I do feel like in the making of this film and having some of these people face feelings that they hadnt confronted in many years, it was very healing. "I learned to bake, to take care of payroll, cleaning, sales - everything," he says. Ted Ngoy was born in Sisophon, Cambodia. It's so amazing, so touching.' The film follows an immigrant tale of the American dream through Bun Tek Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian refugee whose charmed life is full of war, romance, entrepreneurship, racism and a caution about greed. Hard work. That phrase Donut King is already so eye-catching right off the bat. Gu first needed to find Ted Ngoy but she had no idea how to do it. He was bleeding out and her parents were like, 'Oh, God. Twice he joined a Buddhist monastery. Ted Ngoy was reaping rewards of that success. The whole community banded together and they all agreed to sell him out of donuts every morning by 9 a.m. Each morning, he walked with the monks, begging for food from peasants, crying as the rocky roads tore at his bare feet. Boozy Dole Whips. According to Tao, the servants caught on to Ted's presence after a few days but didn't say anything. 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. Filmmaker Alice Gu (left) poses with Mayly Tao outside DK's Donuts in Santa Monica. For the next 45 days, he lived in her room. The doughnut king landed at LAX with $50 in his pocket. The gambling is sad, the saddest part of my life.". Eager to learn the business, Ngoy approached the shop owners. Volcanic tiki drinks. "I came back to L.A. and I didn't know that I was going to create this crazy explosion in the business. He had sold what few shops remained. They had lost their beautiful home and their chain of shops, but still had enough money to live comfortably. 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. A map of Christys Donuts, Winchells and Dunkin Donuts across California during the height of Ted Ngoys entrepreneurship in the 1970s through the 1990s. He had to guess which room was hers. Ngoy would open more shops and lease them to fellow refugees. They cried and prayed for the family they had left behind. "Before I'd never gambled, but like all the compulsive gamblers in the world, first you throw in a couple of bucks, $10, $20. [1], In 2013, he was living in Phnom Penh working in real estate. When you first reached out to Ted, it was a cold call. He built a donut empire and $20 million in wealth, but his fortune built on donuts would crumble and he would lose it all. [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 joined the Republican Party, held fundraisers for George H.W. COVID-19 has hit her store and most other shops hard. Inspired by the economic success of Taiwan, Ted decided to lobby the US for "most favoured nation" status, which would open the door to foreign investment. Ngoy told Suganthini that he didnt love her. Still homeless, he moved to the coastal town of Kep, on the Gulf of Thailand. But then Ted discovered that the tiny room where he lodged, on the fourth floor of a walk-up apartment block, overlooked Suganthini's villa. Oh, and stop for a donut and say "hi.". Over four years nearly two million Cambodians were either executed, or died of starvation, disease and overwork. He had gotten his first taste of that passion years earlier. Their youngest son Chris drove them there to pick up the money - but it went horribly wrong. The following month, US President Gerald Ford insisted the US should welcome 130,000 refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia, telling any critics: "We're a country built by immigrants from all areas of the world, and we've always been a very humanitarian nation.". Ngoy is Cambodian and he was in Phnom Penh when it fell. "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. He was ready to be taken by a new passion. Soon, Cambodians began copying the Ted Ngoy business model. 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. 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. , the Christy Ngoy now owns a Peruvian restaurant in Irvine. And she was heavily chaperoned. 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