The totally surprising and extraordinary roller coast life of Ted Ngoy is the stuff of a good movie drama ….. except that this is a documentary of his almost unbelievable real life.
A word of warning here, before you start to stream Alice Gu‘s wee film, go grab yourself a box of donuts, as her film has you gasping to eat more than a few.
The name Ngoy will probably mean nothing to you but to the Cambodian/American community in California, he is a legend. It all started in 1975 when as a Major in the Cambodian Army , he was one of the first lucky refugees to escape from his war destroyed country.
Settling in California with his wife and three young children, Ngoy was ‘sponsored’ by a Church where he worked as a custodian. The pay was meagre, so he took on two other part-time jobs. The second one was pumping gas at a station right next to a donut store. Ngoy instantly became fascinated by the constant lines outside the store day and night clamoring for a food he had never heard off.
So he soon added another job to his endless day when he got accepted for a training position at Wendells, the largest chain of donut stores in the State. Just three months later, fully trained, they gave him the keys to a new story and installed him as the manager.
His story is vague here and we’re not sure how long he ran the stores and still kept his old jobs too, but we do know to staff his Wendells he brought in his whole family to save on payroll. They supported his army-like discipline and attitude and helped him scrimp and save.
It was only a matter of months before he leased his own Donut Store. and then a year before he had a very small chain. He had realized that Donuts were a very easy start up business as long as you had manpower that were prepared to work 24/7.
Word got around other Cambodian refuges and when they approached Ngoy, who became known as Uncle Ted within their community, he was happy to help set them up with their own Donut Stores
Director Gu made a point of showing the bigger picture of the world at that time. Not just the utter destruction on Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge and their reign of terror. She also showed the Ford and Carter Administrations spearhead campaigns to take in as many refugees as possible. Whilst their actions may not have always been met with universal approval from the American public, they did show a whole wealth of support on such a scale that sadly would not be seen these days.
Ngoy was an unselfish man who ended up sponsoring hundreds of his extended family so that they too could emigrate to a new life
Ngoy really did have a Midas touch very quickly became a very wealthy man. This poor boy that grown up in a small wooden shack with with a mud floor now owned a Hollywood Mansion which became a party house for his family and the local Cambodian communities.
And then just as we are totally in awe of him at the park of a story , Gu drops a bombshell and Ngoy’s personal story implodes ……. you’ll have to see the film to know what is about.
His legacy is however mainly still intact. For example 80% of the donut shops in California are still owned by Cambodian families. And some second and third generations that were once annoyed at being press ganged into working in their family’s store when they were kids, are now injecting their energy and ideas to take their businesses forward.
Like 29-year-old woman named Mayly Tao, who speaks at the social media-savvy DK Donuts & Bakery, which her mother founded in the early ’80s, and she now owns. In fact it is the stories of all the different families that really humanize the film. Their hard work , their unfailing enthusiasm, and also their willingness to embrace Uncle Ted with such eagerness when he resurfaces at the end.
