Phnom Penh Post Ted had met Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., [Richard] Nixon. "I became a very, very bad man and borrowed money here and there," he says. When Christy's parents eventually discovered the ruse, they were furious. You see some of these families and their stores in The Donut King [3] Ngoy worked at various jobs, including as a travel agent and tour guide, before joining the military in 1970. [1], That's why I want to tell the world, "Do not gamble." and As word of Ted's success spread, Cambodian immigrants started seeking him out when they arrived in Southern California. (Elina Shatkin/LAist). It's something Ted feels a bit bad about. He was, however, invited to become a government adviser on commerce and agriculture. Christy was in the front and made a lot of inroads with the community and built a lot of bridges. It smelled delicious and when he first tasted one it reminded him of something from home - a fried pastry, also circular, called nom kong. 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.". He hosted Dan Quayle and Pete Wilson at his house. When the couple recovered, her parents finally allowed them to marry. The entire family Christy and the three kids worked alongside him. I just first hurt my wife, Christy, my children and hurt many, many other people, too, because, when we needed money. The Ngoys drove a motor home around California, opening shops in Los Angeles, Modesto, Fresno, San Jose, the Bay Area city of Brisbane, Sacramento and San Diego. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, and the Cambodian genocide began. "I just wanted to raise pigs and chickens and have enough meat and eggs to take to . 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. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. None of the people Ngoy helped get started lent him a hand, he said: I trained them. When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975, they knew they couldn't go home. Soon, Cambodians began copying the Ted Ngoy business model. Christy has remarried and lives in Lake Forest, not far from their three adult children, who all live in Orange County. "He was a little uneasy," Gu says. When he lost he would lash out, smashing doors, breaking furniture and frightening the children. 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. Distraught, she took an overdose of sleeping pills and fell into a coma. His family didn't want to see him, and nobody offered him work, not even baking doughnuts. What was it like?I spoke with him and he was in Cambodia. He became Ted. Los Angeles Times Two days after Gu's out-of-the-blue call to DK's Donuts, she was talking to Ngoy in Cambodia. 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. 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. 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. He sat on the roof of his apartment and played his flute, the music sweeping over the neighborhood. 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. and California landscape with a familiar coat yellow strip mall signs with red lettering reading Christys Donuts. In 1985, he and Suganthini became U.S. citizens. [5], The film received 69/100 on Metacritic, receiving "generally favorable reviews. He says he hid in her room for 45 days until he was discovered. Not many professional gamblers are bipolar women, but Cat Hulbert was one of the best - and she delighted in winning money from men. He woke her up and she was about to scream for help, when she realised it was her classmate. There were some hurt relationships. Cambodian Americans control an estimated 80 percent of the donut market in California thanks largely to one man- Ted Ngoy, otherwise known as The Donut King. One involves reggae and another focuses on Puerto Rican musicians. While Ted was immersed in Cambodian politics, Christy flew to the US for the birth of a grandchild. One of Ngoy's first jobs in the US was as a service station attendant. Her name was Suganthini Khoeun. He was Chinese Cambodian, part of a despised underclass. Read about our approach to external linking. I just want to create as many as I can, he said. Theyre savvy, young, hip. [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. 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. Hes friends with Dana Rohrabacher. This tastes like any other glazed donut,'" Gu says. Interviews can sometimes feel like a therapy session. Upon his return to Orange County, Ngoy began gambling harder than ever stating "Monks cannot help me, Buddha cannot help me. His story begins in the early 1970s when Ngoy was a commander in the Royal Cambodian Army, training soldiers in Thailand. Ngoy showed them baking and bookkeeping. He dissolved his party and accused the government of corruption. When time goes by it gets into your blood and you just cannot get it out," says Ted. By 1976, Ted had saved up enough money to buy his own shop, which he named Christy's. I told them I'm very sorry 1,000 times. It took longer than 40 years. This is an incredible story of how he helped people. When you hook up with gambling, your life's finished. These are kids who are American educated. Doughnut revenue put their children through college. He is nicknamed the "Donut King." He is nicknamed the "Donut King." War erupted in 1970. Cambodia was having its first democratic elections since the war and he wanted to stand for office to help rebuild his country. I said, 'Because it's incredible, for one. So, I just did it. Ngoy tried Gamblers Anonymous. , to name a few outlets), but Alice Gu is the first to put it on film. She was lucky that Mayly Tao, whose mom, Chuong Lee, owns the shop, answered the phone. The Top 5 newsletter catches you up with LAs top 5 stories in just 3 minutes. 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. He did as he was told, but then pulled out a knife and stabbed himself, declaring he would rather die than live without her. Their fairy tale romance is so distant, she said, its as if it happened to someone else. He is working in real estate. 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. That's because of a refugee who built up an empire, and became known as the Donut King, only to lose it all. buy a ticket 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. The family members worked 17 hours a day and saved for a year. Over the years, he says he sponsored more than 100 Cambodian families that wanted to come to the U.S. And that's what he did. "If I need the vote, I cannot gamble. And she was heavily chaperoned. A bank had foreclosed on his mansion on Lake Mission Viejo. Gu first needed to find Ted Ngoy but she had no idea how to do it. Ngoy's gambling had progressed from the card tables to placing bets on sports games with Cambodian bookies. Ted Ngoy made a fortune in doughnuts. Interestingly, largely because of Democratic policy we got a grant for our camera and it came from this girl, who was the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who landed in Arkansas. 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. Ngoy built a vast donut shop empire across California and it started in 1970s Orange County. Before sunrise, they would climb back into her room. 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. called Your Guide To Everything Boozy You Can Order, A Los Angeles Family Seeks Answers And Accountability After Black Mom Dies In Childbirth. They barely talked to him. Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin hired Ngoy as a janitor. Whenever Ted won, the family would rejoice with him. I instantly found the Realtor, the listing agent and arranged to go and have Ted walk through his old house. Refugees who had sought his advice now avoided him, fearing he would ask for a loan. 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. [9], Ngoy is the subject of the 2020 documentary film The Donut King. Ted Ngoy stands in front of his first independent donut shop in La Habra, named after his wife Christy Ngoy. I ate the whole thing. He taught them the names of the doughnuts: old fashioned, jelly-filled, glazed. An owner could keep costs low by employing his family. A cinematographer who has worked on commercials and movies with Rory Kennedy, Werner Herzog and Stacy Peralta, she stumbled onto the subject after her nanny brought her some "Cambodian donuts. The gambling is sad, the saddest part of my life.". 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. But I still win. "'You want to tell my story? But within weeks he was back on a plane to Vegas. According to Tao, the servants caught on to Ted's presence after a few days but didn't say anything. 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. He was raised by his mother, who was from Shantou, Guangdong, and who only spoke Chinese. I say, Ted, who are you? I really dont know.. He would have no more donuts to sell so he could be with his wife for the rest of the day. The Cambodians worked hard and because the whole family pitched in, they did not have to pay out any wages. How to get the best eggs in town without leaving your yard. 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