Word spread. He paid for their airfare and, when they arrived, "Uncle Ted" let them stay at his house while he taught them the ropes of the donut business. Just knowing that my great uncle Ted and the story of my parents and hearing Alice say, 'I want to really dig deep on a Cambodian donut shop,' I was like, 'Wow, this is real. Perpetually in need of cash, he'd ask the people running his donut shops for loans. "Don't worry, I will hide under your bed," said Ted. According to Tao, the servants caught on to Ted's presence after a few days but didn't say anything. Don't die. He enjoyed meeting the younger generation of doughnut makers, who are innovating and inventing new flavours. And he said he saw her heart break before his very eyes. 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. His mother raised him in a rural village near Cambodias border with Thailand. Gu's documentary, An immigrant story with a (glazed) twist, The Donut King follows the journey of Cambodian refugee Ted Ngoy, who arrived in California in the 1970s and, through a mixture of diligence and. Ted soon got a job working at Winchell's, which was then the dominant donut chain on the West Coast. The donut business isnt easy. Ted Ngoy had served in the Cambodian army as a major fighting communists that were trying to take over that country's government in the 1970s. Ted became their first South East Asian trainee. It provided a path for refugees to settle and was a profitable business model. He left behind his new wife and their two children, and what he had seen as his last chance at redemption. 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. The family were housed in a hastily erected refugee camp on a marine training base, Camp Pendleton. "I never back down. Where Im going, I dont know. "If I need the vote, I cannot gamble. The stranger who crept into her room more than 35 years ago is a stranger again. [2][3][4], The Donut King was directed by Alice Gu, and is her first feature film. This documentary tells Ted Ngoy's story that is one of fate, love, survival, hard knocks, and redemption. I told them I'm very sorry 1,000 times. , chronicles Ngoy's thrill-of-victory/agony-of-defeat rollercoaster ride through the American Dream immigration, capitalism, history, hubris, romance, addiction, family and food. Upon his return to Orange County, Ngoy began gambling harder than ever stating "Monks cannot help me, Buddha cannot help me. [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. Ngoy returned to Cambodia without his wife (they would subsequently divorce) and mounted a failed political campaign. Ngoy fled with his wife, three young children, two cousins and a nephew to the United States in 1975. The second time Ted came back to California, Chet took all this time off of work, took him to his timeshare in Oceanside and drove his dad around all over Southern California. NICK STREET Channy is a stocky man in his mid-forties, and he runs USA Donut in Boeung Keng Kang with his wife. Tell us about your wife. Once, I said I would die if something happened to him, Christy said of her ex-husband. "This friendly voice picks up the phone, a young voice in that perfectly American accented English. Now, he is in real estate development," Gu says. By 1976, Ted had saved up enough money to buy his own shop, which he named Christy's. I ate the whole thing. At a news conference, he dissolved his party and accused the government of corruption. The first few times he and Christy visited, on early family holidays, everything went well: they watched a magic show, they saw Elvis perform. I'm not famous. Ted Ngoy has become a stranger even to himself. Her daughter, Mayly Tao, has taken over the reigns of DK's. When there was an overrun of pink doughnut boxes Ted bought them cut-price, and the pink boxes became his trademark. What is Ted up to in Cambodia nowadays?Ted is doing well. "He's like, 'You know what? You just have to see the opportunity and go for it. Those are the wise words of Ted Ngoy. [5], The film received 69/100 on Metacritic, receiving "generally favorable reviews. 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. After completing the company's training program, they gave him the keys to a store in Newport Beach. Today, at 62, the doughnut king is broke, homeless and dependent on the goodwill of his few remaining friends. When they were released, the cash was gone. [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. Christys Doughnuts in La Habra never did great business. Along with thousands of other Cambodian refugees, the Ngoys ended up at Camp Pendleton. She thought it might have been a tall tale, "But when I was in Cambodia, [Ted] lifted his shirt and I saw the puncture wounds," Gu adds. Once a paragon in the community, refugees now avoided him for fear of being asked for a loan. I think thats the American way the power of connections and people. Doing this film was really an exploration for me of understanding where you come from. I said, 'Because it's incredible, for one. He was Chinese Cambodian, part of a despised underclass. In 1985, he and Suganthini became U.S. citizens. Ngoy wrote to her. Seasonal Halloween donuts at DK's Donuts in Santa Monica. "It went like fire on the hill, so fast," says Ted. He cut his chest sliding under barbed wire. "I came back to L.A. and I didn't know that I was going to create this crazy explosion in the business. While he was recovering in hospital, Suganthini also made an attempt on her life. He co-signed loans for supplies and equipment. "Using money to provide for others is a feeling as powerful as any drug," he later wrote. 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. 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. A day before he left, his eldest son said if you have $3.2 million you can buy it. He trained them and handed over the keys. Pit bosses, floor men and dealers at Caesars Palace, the MGM Grand and the Mirage got to know the Cambodian doughnut king. Buddha cannot help me.. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Ted encouraged others to do the same. He woke her up and she was about to scream for help, when she realised it was her classmate. 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. In Cambodia, Ngoy formed the Free Development Republican Party. His gesture went unreciprocated for days. Why are we still having these debates? For weeks, they watched other families leave, until finally they, too, were sponsored by a pastor from a church in Tustin, Orange County, about 35 miles south of Los Angeles. Christy would search for him in the casinos, the children in tow. in Irvine, They were moving their capital and know-how into liquor stores, markets and fast-food restaurants. He was a fraud, he said. Until then, she was kept sheltered. 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. 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. 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. Also Jerry Brown, who weve seen in California as our beacon of hope and morality, in 1975 was actually the opposite. This is an incredible story of how he helped people. One night, he saw Suganthini on her balcony, and decided it was time to make his move. "[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. He subsists on small handouts from friends. Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin hired Ngoy as a janitor. Then he had his next great idea. Ngoy bought stores in Fullerton, Anaheim, Anaheim Hills and Buena Park over the next year. [6] Gu persuaded him to and, ultimately, he regarded his return as a 'healing experience,' and his ex-wife and children have forgiven him. He slept under the bed and hid when the maids came to clean. When he was unable to pay back his debt, he would sign over his store to them. He went on to marry Suganthini Khoeun, the daughter of a high-ranking government official. 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. You cannot resist against it.. When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975, they knew they couldn't go home. When you get to the table, youre so emotional, evil in your body, he said. In our very first phone call, he asked if I was American and I told him that I was Chinese American. He became Ted. The family members worked 17 hours a day and saved for a year. Despite never really being a huge success under the previous owners, Christy's became popular under the ownership of the Ngoys. Ted Ngoy was born in Sisophon, Cambodia. Even in gambling. [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. Then he pulled a knife. Because he was a high roller the casinos put him up in $2,000-a-night suites and offered him VIP tickets to the best shows. [1], In 2013, he was living in Phnom Penh working in real estate. 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. Ted had met Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., [Richard] Nixon. Also, significantly for Ngoy, other Cambodian refugees and their children donuts. The Ngoys helped hundreds of refugees find housing and apply for Social Security cards. Ngoy is Cambodian and he was in Phnom Penh when it fell. I never will be able to pay back. He built a donut empire and $20 million in wealth, but his fortune built on donuts would crumble and he would lose it all. He took two additional jobs, working almost 24 hours per day. Soon, Cambodians began copying the Ted Ngoy business model. Once, he was a poor boy who carried away one of Cambodias wealthiest daughters. To Christy, this was the final betrayal. They took American names. 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