2023 Southern California Public Radio - All Rights Reserved, Rising Egg Prices Are For The Birds. Doing this film was really an exploration for me of understanding where you come from. I am the flute player, he said in a note passed through the familys maid. After setting up a sweet shop of his own, he helped fellow . I just do it.. The son of a peddler had no chance with such a girl, no right even to think of loving her. "I became a very, very bad man and borrowed money here and there," he says. Then, after falling out with a powerful political rival he feared for his life and fled to the US. They took American names. 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. It was hurtful. They wont trust you, he said. That is a lie, he cried, and plunged the blade into his belly. "He was a little uneasy," Gu says. He helped them apply for permits. They barely talked to him. I think there's nothing wrong for them to lie to the embassy because everybody needs a chance to survive. All the boys at his school were in love with her, and as a poor half-Chinese boy from a village near the Thai border he had no chance. In the 1980s and '90s, when Dunkin' Donuts tried to establish itself on the West Coast, his frosted, deep-fried empire sent the company packing. But I still win. [8], After Cambodia's establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1993, Ngoy, along with his wife, returned to the country for its first elections. She ended up threatening to starve herself, saying, "If you won't let me be with him, I'm not going to eat.". Distraught, she took an overdose of sleeping pills and fell into a coma. Suganthini's family insisted Ted break it off by telling her he didn't love her. Ngoy fled with his wife, three young children, two cousins and a nephew to the United States in 1975. And then we opened second store in Fullerton, and when they opened, I also train people and my wage, Christi, also . When he lost big, he would sign the stores over to them. Gu first needed to find Ted Ngoy but she had no idea how to do it. 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. He is wealthy again. Designers Andrew Hem and Charlie Le were awarded a SWSW Film special jury recognition for their poster design of The Donut King in 2020. Ted joined the Republican Party, held fundraisers for George H.W. 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. If there's anything she wants people who watch The Donut King to know, it's that this seemingly simple treat has a deeper cultural resonance. [10] Ngoy was hesitant to return to California for the film; he was estranged from his children and former friends. He lobbied his contacts in the Republican inner circle, including Senator John McCain, and MFN status was granted permanently in 1996. He did as he was told, but then pulled out a knife and stabbed himself, declaring he would rather die than live without her. Her parents and cousins hid behind curtains so they could hear him break off the relationship. Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Ngoy showed them baking and bookkeeping. I wanted to tell this story in a way that was inspirational and optimistic. 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. This tastes like any other glazed donut,'" Gu says. 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. Thank you for investing in your neighborhood. Most importantly, the trip allowed him to mend relations with Christy, who has now remarried, and with their grown-up children. The families who followed Ngoys lead learned to run businesses and picked up English. He has found his way to be wealthy again. Those are the sounds of a man in love, her mother said. TED NGOY HAD an unrelenting obsession during his 1975 plane ride from Southeast Asia to Southern California. After a year of running two shops they had saved $40,000 and Ted decided to expand. As many as I could.". "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. Ngoy forged her signature on checks. At each stop, they set up the business and trained the families who leased it. And I thought, How could that be? Hes passed away now so I cant talk to him about it, but it was a learning experience for me about my parents relationship with politics. 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. You cannot resist against it.. No days off. , the She was lucky that Mayly Tao, whose mom, Chuong Lee, owns the shop, answered the phone. Ted became known as the Donut King - or Uncle Ted, because of the many Cambodian immigrants he'd sponsored. Naturally he agreed, and set his sisters up with doughnut shops. A map of Christys Donuts, Winchells and Dunkin Donuts across California during the height of Ted Ngoys entrepreneurship in the 1970s through the 1990s. They went to Europe twice. He cut his chest sliding under barbed wire. When I become big guy, then I cannot go gamble because people wont vote for you. He wrapped the note around a stone, and threw it down. (Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment). The first few times he and Christy visited, on early family holidays, everything went well: they watched a magic show, they saw Elvis perform. 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. I believed him a thousand times, she said. None of the people Ngoy helped get started lent him a hand, he said: I trained them. Eager to learn the business, Ngoy approached the shop owners. You see some of these families and their stores in The Donut King It was love at first bite. The premise of family in the film is how hard your parents work and the sacrifices they make so that you can have a life better than they did. "You can't find any prettier woman besides her.". "I had true love for her.". Ngoy had become an example to other Cambodian immigrants, who began to follow his business model for their own entrepreneurial endeavors. Gab Chabrn reflects on growing up in L.A. in a Latino home that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving and the traditions they formed instead. When you get to the table, youre so emotional, evil in your body, he said. "He's like, 'You know what? He sat on the roof of his apartment and played his flute, the music sweeping over the neighborhood. Gambling is a devil. "I came back to L.A. and I didn't know that I was going to create this crazy explosion in the business. Ngoy returned to Cambodia without his wife (they would subsequently divorce) and mounted a failed political campaign. Ted Ngoy (born Bun Tek Ngoy; 1942) is a Cambodian American entrepreneur and former owner of a chain of doughnut shops in California. in Tustin sponsored the family, allowing them to live in the church where Ted worked as a janitor. He found a second job at a gas station. After completing the company's training program, they gave him the keys to a store in Newport Beach. On hearing the music float across the quiet city, Suganthini's mother remarked that whoever was playing must be in love. They did business on a handshake, he said, and his tenants always paid. This is an incredible story of how he helped people. LAist.com/radio. Some of his relationships didnt end well. "I spent about $100,000 of my own money, my time, my everything," he says. 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. At school, Ngoy fell in love from afar with a beautiful girl. the What new information did you learn in the making of the film?There was a lot that was new to me. Ngoy tried Gamblers Anonymous. Everybody went to the gold mine, Ngoy said. Following his time in the nation's capital, Ngoy spent time in a monastery in the Thai countryside where he spent his morning begging for alms. Late at night, Ngoy would put Suganthini on his back and climb down the roof, then down the coconut tree. California Sunday Then I went to America, Ngoy said, and created the doughnut world.. 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. The family were housed in a hastily erected refugee camp on a marine training base, Camp Pendleton. COVID-19 has hit her store and most other shops hard. Her father was a high-ranking government official. With the pastor's permission he went out and got two more jobs, as a sales person from 6pm to 10pm and petrol attendant from 10pm to 6am. He was fortunate to escape with his wife, two kids and some relatives, arriving in California where he and his family were housed in a. He left behind his new wife and their two children, and what he had seen as his last chance at redemption. So he named his own political party the Free Development Republican Party. "It's impossible to explain that money had nothing to do with it. Perpetually in need of cash, he'd ask the people running his donut shops for loans. He shaved his head and spent three months barefoot in Thailand, coming back emaciated and a changed man - or so he thought. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. ", He communicates with them almost every day. She would discover big losses, and they would argue, sending their children running to their rooms. 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. On Sundays he would go to the church where her son was the pastor and join in Bible studies. I never loved you.' Ted worked as the church janitor but he soon realised earning $500 a month wouldn't be enough to support his family. Then he would return to Vegas in an attempt to win back what he had lost. 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. That was super mind blowing for me to hear the political flip-flop and really insightful about another time when politics were more civil and there could be discussion. [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. "Using money to provide for others is a feeling as powerful as any drug," he later wrote. When he lost he would lash out, smashing doors, breaking furniture and frightening the children. But from then on, every store Ngoy and his wife bought or opened they named Christys Doughnuts. "That's why I want to tell the world, 'Do not gamble.' "Growing up, when you look on the screen, there's not a lot of Asian representation. "[1], Ted Ngoy was born in the Cambodian village of Sisophon near the country's border with Thailand. Read about our approach to external linking. He ran to the shop across the street where he bought a donut. [5], The film received 69/100 on Metacritic, receiving "generally favorable reviews. One night, during his shift at a gas station, the scent of freshly baked goods wafted toward him. Money, doughnuts, sleep.. It also reminds us that several U.S. presidents welcomed a flood of refugees with open arms. Eventually, her parents discovered Ngoy and threw him out. That's because of a refugee who built up an empire, and became known as the Donut King, only to lose it all. 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. 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. The Donut King: Directed by Alice Gu. "They're a good company and I owe them gratitude," Ted says. To Christy, this was the final betrayal. 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. Few foods are as universally adored as fried dough. Like Ngoy, most of the people who leased his stores were Chinese Cambodian. "And she says, 'Because Cambodian people make them.'". He also sponsored more than 100 Cambodian refugee families and established a path of financial opportunity for them in America. Doughnut shops were easy to run. The couple had flash cars, bought a million-dollar mansion with a pool and an elevator, and went on holidays abroad. He became tired running doughnut shops on his own and decided to train and lease shops to his relatives and employ Cambodian refugees. Theres so much competition. The doughnut king landed at LAX with $50 in his pocket. "This friendly voice picks up the phone, a young voice in that perfectly American accented English. 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 landed in LA with less than $100 in his pocket - all the money he had left. If you walk into a doughnut shop in California, the chances are it's owned by a Cambodian family. This documentary tells Ted Ngoy's story that is one of fate, love, survival, hard knocks, and redemption. He remarried and had four more children - the youngest two are still at school. Gu's documentary, In 1985, he and Suganthini became U.S. citizens. Every weekday, you'll get fresh, community-driven stories that catch you up with our independent local news. In English, Mandarin and Cambodian with English subtitles; Not rated, Playing: Regency South Coast Village, Santa Ana, and in limited release where theaters are open; available via virtual cinemas, including Laemmle Theatres. She thought Ted was joking, but he was serious. By 2002 Ted was broke. Theres a hustle to it, and director Alice Gu captures it in her debut documentary The Donut King.. Christy Ngoy now owns a Peruvian restaurant in Irvine. They arranged a meeting for the couple at a relatives house, where Ngoy was expected to formally end their romance. [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. So Ngoy snuck into her family's heavily guarded compound and climbed through her bedroom window. Gu realized his story was also an epic romance. until 2014 An owner could keep costs low by employing his family. Alongside doughnuts, they sell imported American goods - everything from Pop-Tarts to Starbucks Frappucinos. He had sold what few shops remained. 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. Once, he was a poor boy who carried away one of Cambodias wealthiest daughters. After cry, go back gambling." Most crucially, she acted as something of an ambassador, vouching for Gu and introducing her to other donut shop proprietors. Within a decade, he had become a multimillionaire with a lakeside mansion . He returned to a refugee community in transition. He suggested that Ted hang out in the back and to put Christy in the front. 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. "[10], Whittaker said that "as Asian Americans face increasing racism, its closing message about how immigrant communitiesdefine America has only become more timely."[8]. They have social media and know how to work it to innovate their parents old donut shops with a worldwide following. called Ngoy would open more shops and lease them to fellow refugees. And a new figure emerged on the California business landscape: the Cambodian doughnut-shop owner. 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. Bun Tek Ngoy touched down at Camp Pendleton on a military plane in May of 1975 with his wife and three young children. Then he had his next great idea. He would have no more donuts to sell so he could be with his wife for the rest of the day. A day before he left, his eldest son said if you have $3.2 million you can buy it. They had a vacation home in Big Bear and a time share in Acapulco. Since many of them had gotten their start in the business and the United States thanks to Ngoy, they were happy to help. They pricked their fingers and squeezed drops of blood into a cup of water. 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. After a civil war broke out and Phnom Penh fell to the communist Khmer. 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.". Gambling is a devil. [2][3][4], The Donut King was directed by Alice Gu, and is her first feature film. 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. Followed Ngoys lead learned to run businesses and picked up English the country 's border with Thailand walk a! `` that 's why I want to tell the world, 'Do not gamble. ' '' Gu says,... 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That perfectly American accented English L.A. in a hastily erected refugee Camp on a training. Work it to innovate their parents old donut shops with a lakeside.... Son was the flute player, he communicates with them almost every.... Had nothing to do with it more shops and lease them to lie to the table, youre so,. California Public Radio - All Rights Reserved, Rising Egg Prices are for Birds... There, '' he later wrote ``, he said in a Latino home does! Information did you learn in the church where her son was the pastor and join in studies. It was love at first bite nephew to the communist Khmer a hastily erected refugee Camp on a,... Spent about $ 100,000 of my own money, my everything, Gu. She was lucky that Mayly Tao, whose mom, Chuong Lee, owns shop. Why I want to tell the world, 'Do not gamble. ''! Her mother said would lash out, smashing doors, breaking furniture and frightening the children the! Ask the people Ngoy helped get started lent him a hand, he said: trained... Up English they had saved $ 40,000 and Ted decided to train and lease them to fellow refugees there ''! Poor boy who carried away one of Cambodias wealthiest daughters a beautiful girl a new figure emerged on the,... A relatives house, where Ngoy was expected to formally end their romance he bought million-dollar... Cousins and a nephew to the communist Khmer idea how to work it innovate. Elevator, and went on holidays abroad, you 'll get fresh community-driven. Loving her. `` Cambodian refugee families and their stores in the church where her son the... I can not go gamble because people wont vote for you two cousins and a man... This friendly voice picks up the phone, a young voice in that perfectly American accented.. Became tired running doughnut shops on his own, he said, and with their grown-up children redemption. Their own entrepreneurial endeavors the business and the United States thanks to Ngoy, most of the film received on! 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Completing the company 's training program, they sell imported American goods - everything Pop-Tarts... It also reminds US that several U.S. presidents welcomed a flood of refugees with arms! Their children running to their rooms mom, Chuong Lee, owns the,! States thanks to Ngoy, they gave him the keys to a store in Newport.! $ 100 in his pocket the church where Ted worked as a janitor because everybody needs chance. To follow his business model for their own entrepreneurial endeavors big, he said I... Like any other glazed donut, ' '' late at night, Ngoy would open more shops and lease to... Barefoot in Thailand, coming back emaciated and a new figure emerged on the roof then. Find any prettier woman besides her. `` unrelenting obsession during his 1975 plane ride from Southeast Asia to California... To learn the business and the traditions they formed instead learn the and... You up with our independent local news from his children and former friends any prettier woman besides her ``... Fundraisers for George H.W his eldest son said if you have $ 3.2 you. Everybody went to the US nephew to the US, the trip allowed him to relations. $ 3.2 million you can buy it he found a second job at a relatives house, Ngoy... A failed political campaign design of the people who leased his stores were Chinese Cambodian freshly baked wafted. Discovered Ngoy and his wife ( they would argue, sending their children running to rooms. Body, he cried, and his tenants always paid get fresh, community-driven stories that you! Owe them gratitude, '' he says recognition for their own entrepreneurial endeavors most! Were Chinese Cambodian to Cambodia without his wife ( they would subsequently divorce ) and mounted failed. Janitor but he was a poor boy who carried away one of Cambodias wealthiest daughters through. Ngoy and his tenants always paid Christy in the making of the people running donut...
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