Doing this film was really an exploration for me of understanding where you come from. They both drank and vowed to be faithful. He had lost the respect of his family and community. 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. When he lost big, he would sign the stores over to them. His party did poorly in the 1993 and 1998 parliamentary elections, but Prime Minister Hun Sen made him an advisor on commerce and agriculture. While Ted was immersed in Cambodian politics, Christy flew to the US for the birth of a grandchild. Some of his relationships didnt end well. [6][3], Ngoy bought additional doughnut shops in Orange County. "He's like, 'You know what? From the wall, he leaped onto the roof and crawled through an open window. (Elina Shatkin/LAist). About 30 Christys Doughnuts were still in operation, as were hundreds of other Cambodian-owned doughnut shops. Ngoy lived in an attic apartment a few blocks from the Khoeun familys mansion. They would speed through Phnom Penh on his motorcycle, the couple recalled. Ngoy told Suganthini that he didnt love her. In 1985, he and Suganthini became U.S. citizens. When you get to the table, youre so emotional, evil in your body, he said. He had burned a lot of bridges and at the time his children hardly spoke to him. "The more you chase, the more it's gone," he says in a new documentary about his rise and fall, called The Donut King. Your tax-deductible financial support keeps our stories free to read, instead of hidden behind paywalls. "[1] In 1977, the Ngoys took a trip to Las Vegas where Ted saw Elvis Presley. Once a paragon in the community, refugees now avoided him for fear of being asked for a loan. So I decided to change.". What new information did you learn in the making of the film?There was a lot that was new to me. 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. On Sundays he would go to the church where her son was the pastor and join in Bible studies. They took American names. "I had true love for her.". [9], Ngoy is the subject of the 2020 documentary film The Donut King. I just do it.. He enjoyed meeting the younger generation of doughnut makers, who are innovating and inventing new flavours. You just have to see the opportunity and go for it. Those are the wise words of Ted Ngoy. 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. Maybe Its Time To Raise Backyard Chickens, Catch A Wave In The Booming South Bay Food Scene: Here Are 11 New Restaurants To Try, Don't Celebrate Thanksgiving? 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. Read about our approach to external linking. They had a vacation home in Big Bear and a time share in Acapulco. They saw Elvis Presley perform, and Ted played a little blackjack. Ted was the consummate schmoozer and salesman. The son of a peddler had no chance with such a girl, no right even to think of loving her. The family members worked 17 hours a day and saved for a year. He turned down a job as a security guard because it required standing for eight hours. None of the people Ngoy helped get started lent him a hand, he said: I trained them. The Ngoys decided to keep uniformity amongst their shops, naming subsequent acquisitions Christy's. Eventually he and Christy were left with just one doughnut shop, which they decided to sell. Theres also the moment where Ted revisits his former home in Mission Viejo. How to get the best eggs in town without leaving your yard. 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. Yes, you read that right. Bush, met former Presidents Reagan and Nixon, and urged other Asian immigrants to support the GOP. It was on the market. 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 became known as the Donut King - or Uncle Ted,. But the situation at home was increasingly dangerous and on his last trip, in April 1975, the capital fell. You cannot resist against it.. Whenever Ted won, the family would rejoice with him. 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. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Ngoy is Cambodian and he was in Phnom Penh when it fell. 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. This is going to happen.'". At 16, she had no friends, could not talk to boys and was forbidden to leave home alone. in Santa Monica. When people know about the bad reputation, people are not going to vote for me. Cambodia was planning its first elections in 1993, and well-to-do emigres from California were returning to run for office. Baby Yoda cocktails. The film flashes back to the horror of life in 1970s Cambodia, a tragic offshoot of the Vietnam war that eliminated thousands of lives. The doughnut king landed at LAX with $50 in his pocket. In the early 1990s, it was reported that California had 2,400 Cambodian-owned doughnut shops. I ended up not sharing that donut. In 1975, Ngoy fled the Khmer Rouge with his wife and three children to Camp Pendleton. I dont know who I am right now, he said. He formed the Free Development Republican Party (ahead of the countrys UN-backed elections), believing that he could show others the path to wealth and hoping that being a politician might stymy his gambling addiction. Suganthini and her mother heard the music. The gambling is sad, the saddest part of my life.". 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. Boozy Dole Whips. When you hook up with gambling, your life's finished. 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. He also figured that as a prominent politician, he would be forced to control his gambling habit. COVID origins? [6] Gu persuaded him to and, ultimately, he regarded his return as a 'healing experience,' and his ex-wife and children have forgiven him. Will Orange County's Fledgling Clean Power Agency Survive? I go to borrow. Ngoy returned to Cambodia without his wife (they would subsequently divorce) and mounted a failed political campaign. After completing the company's training program, they gave him the keys to a store in Newport Beach. 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. [10] Ngoy was hesitant to return to California for the film; he was estranged from his children and former friends. He slept under the bed and hid when the maids came to clean. Ted was dismayed. [5], Ngoy was hesitant to return to California for the film; he was estranged from his children and former friends. Las Vegas was the new thing, he said, besides making money and making doughnuts,. Word spread. Peace Lutheran Church Those are the sounds of a man in love, her mother said. The Ngoys helped hundreds of refugees find housing and apply for Social Security cards. Thank you for investing in your neighborhood. Ngoy showed them baking and bookkeeping. He and his family barely escaped and were among. Ngoy bought his first doughnut. Drenched and bleeding, he tiptoed into a hallway. She would forgive him when he promised to stop, and he would -- for a while. That is a lie, he cried, and plunged the blade into his belly. It's so amazing, so touching.' They arranged a meeting for the couple at a relatives house, where Ngoy was expected to formally end their romance. and California landscape with a familiar coat yellow strip mall signs with red lettering reading Christys Donuts. "[10], Whittaker said that "as Asian Americans face increasing racism, its closing message about how immigrant communitiesdefine America has only become more timely."[8]. Los Angeles Times Buddha cannot help me.. "This friendly voice picks up the phone, a young voice in that perfectly American accented English. At the height of his success in the US he had been an ardent Republican, and an enthusiastic fundraiser for the party. Despite his success, he said, he felt unhappy and isolated. It smelled delicious and when he first tasted one it reminded him of something from home - a fried pastry, also circular, called nom kong. So Ngoy snuck into her family's heavily guarded compound and climbed through her bedroom window. ", He communicates with them almost every day. 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. "If I need to shower, I knock on the door, 'Lady can I take a shower?' Ngoy became a trainee and took over a Winchell's in Newport Beach. 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. He says to me, Alice, making money its so easy. Upon deeper glance, it was so personal for me. Abcarian: Mask mandates? I told him that he has a story to tell. 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. 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. His doughnut fortune was almost gone. The entire family Christy and the three kids worked alongside him. Don't die. "The note said, 'I appreciate you blowing the flute. The whole community banded together and they all agreed to sell him out of donuts every morning by 9 a.m. She divorced him and didnt return to Cambodia. A child of immigrants herself, she had become curious why Californian doughnut shops were so often run by Cambodians, and why there were so many of them. "Ted, again, is Mr. Nine Lives. He took a real estate class but said he couldnt retain the details. The next day, he flew back to Los Angeles. Ted wrote one day. During the week they went to school, where sometimes they were so hungry they stole snacks from other kids' lunchboxes. Long hours. Despite never really being a huge success under the previous owners, Christy's became popular under the ownership of the Ngoys. The Cambodians worked hard and because the whole family pitched in, they did not have to pay out any wages. Ngoy was one. "She was so beautiful," he remembers. One involves reggae and another focuses on Puerto Rican musicians. 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 lost all the doughnuts, said James Dok, director of the United Cambodian Community, a social service agency in Long Beach. I wanted to tell this story in a way that was inspirational and optimistic. BC Donuts "a short-lived comeback in Sacramento in 2002," the Massachusetts-based company didn't return to the Golden State In saffron robes and shaved head, the doughnut king spent a month meditating. It led many voters to assume, incorrectly, that he was against Cambodia's royal family, and he didn't win a seat. Suganthinis parents hoped she would marry well. Ted became deeply religious. Ngoy tried Gamblers Anonymous. The Donut King is a documentary directed by Alice Gu that covers the life of Ted Ngoy, one of the primary reasons behind the Cambodian American donut shop boom. They saved money where they could, even washing and reusing coffee stirrers - until they were reprimanded by Winchell's. He did as he was told, but then pulled out a knife and stabbed himself, declaring he would rather die than live without her. Im Chinese American. He says he hid in her room for 45 days until he was discovered. NICK STREET Channy is a stocky man in his mid-forties, and he runs USA Donut in Boeung Keng Kang with his wife. [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. Then when dinner is ready, she knocks on the door and I open the door to have dinner.". [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. Oklahoma-style smash burgers and Georgian dumplings make for some excellent cheap bites in Glendale, Husband and wife Felix Agyei and Hazel Rojas combine food from their heritages, creating a marriage of West African and Filipino cooking. Ted and Christy are divorced. The two had met as teenage classmates in Phnom Penh. Today, at 62, the doughnut king is broke, homeless and dependent on the goodwill of his few remaining friends. It was small amounts first but he was soon blowing bigger figures and he couldn't seem to stop. Beautiful views aren't the only thing drawing Angelenos to the region. It's a monster in me.". "After cry, go back gambling," he told one interviewer. He is nicknamed the "Donut King. 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. All the latest on Orange County from Orange County. He was ready to be taken by a new passion. He says his gambling is under control -- though he has no money with which to test this will power. 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. ", But in the end, he says, he beat it. Ted Ngoy By 1985, 10 years after arriving in the US as refugees, Ted and Christy were millionaires, owning around 60 doughnut shops. When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975, they knew they couldn't go home. ", "I was like, 'What on earth makes this Cambodian? He was raised by his mother, who was from Shantou, Guangdong, and who only spoke Chinese. Suganthini replied, "Well be careful, if you don't jump into my room, you'll jump into my mum's room.". 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. goes to your local theater. . Heres a list, Greek transportation minister resigns over train collision as death toll keeps rising, Ohios senators to unveil rail safety bill in wake of East Palestine derailment, After months of pounding, Ukrainian official says military may pull back from Bakhmut, Elizabeth Holmes cites her new baby as a reason she should avoid prison for Theranos scam. To understand the politics, the Republican party at the time was a very anticommunist party. 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. Devastated that he had broken their pact, she filed for divorce. Christy Ngoy now owns a Peruvian restaurant in Irvine. When you first reached out to Ted, it was a cold call. Well, the biggest problem I was facing, that was the gambling, and it completely wiped me out, you know, separate of the family. He trained them and handed over the keys. Once, he was a millionaire who met three U.S. presidents. Hes friends with Dana Rohrabacher. Ted Ngoy in The Donut King documentary. When the couple recovered, her parents finally allowed them to marry. In our very first phone call, he asked if I was American and I told him that I was Chinese American. "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. 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. Huge numbers of Cambodian refugees were arriving in California. Why are we still having these debates? Then he pulled a knife. 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. Ngoys wife hated his gambling. "You can't find any prettier woman besides her.". She became Christy. When he lost he would lash out, smashing doors, breaking furniture and frightening the children. In Cambodia, Ngoy formed the Free Development Republican Party. 2023 BBC. 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. Before sunrise, they would climb back into her room. Where are they now?. When he couldn't pay them back because he had gambled the money away, Ted signed away his ownership stake in those stores. Gu is working on developing a couple of music-themed film projects, both documentaries and narratives. The Donut King 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. Los Angeles Times Her brother-in-law, Sutsakhan Sak, was chief of police and would become, briefly, the countrys president. They cried and prayed for the family they had left behind. Gu realized his story was also an epic romance. He shaved his head and spent three months barefoot in Thailand, coming back emaciated and a changed man - or so he thought. Mismanagement, Sloppy Hiring Practices, Lack Of Transparency. More land deals followed and he has now worked his way back to being a millionaire. Her father was a high-ranking government official. [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. It was here that Ngoy had his first taste of gambling while placing bets at the blackjack tables. It actually made national, if not international, news about the kindness of these people in Orange County. One of their sons is a financial consultant; another is a computer-networking technician. 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. I dont think you dare come to my room, she responded. "And she says, 'Because Cambodian people make them.'". In 1990, after disappearing for another disastrous trip to Las Vegas, he flew to Washington, D.C., and joined a Buddhist monastery. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. One of Ngoy's first jobs in the US was as a service station attendant. Is there anything that you left on the cutting room floor that you still think about?There are a lot of things that I still think about on the cutting room floor. Why would anybody be interested in my story?' 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. 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. , chronicles Ngoy's thrill-of-victory/agony-of-defeat rollercoaster ride through the American Dream immigration, capitalism, history, hubris, romance, addiction, family and food. 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. 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