A South Vietnamese immigrant who says he came to the United States without a cent in his pocket, Vu became an television-infomercial icon. I also got a kick out of supposed students of Vu’s, who appeared in the infomercials to testify to their teacher’s wisdom. One such fellow seemed inexplicably (and thus amusingly) angry while talking about the big money he was making under Vu’s guidance. I spoke to Tom Vu in January of 1992, for a 48 Hours piece on him. Interestingly, Vu later retired from the real-estate market to become a professional gambler in Las Vegas… where he, again, made a lot of money.