Lon Ballinger is an author, entrepreneur, and speaker. His latest book, Party Boys, is the true story of how a dirt-poor family from Canada managed the toughest business on earth in the entertainment capitals of the world and stayed at the top for 40 years. But Lon didn’t start on top. He earned his way from humble beginnings. 

A quintessential farm boy turned real estate investor and nightclub owner, Lon Ballinger was born in 1950, the third of five children, in Montreal, Canada to a war veteran and a homemaker. In 1954, his parents moved the family to a rural Ontario farm. There, he and his siblings were trained to work the fields, grow crops, and care for their farm animals.

The nearest school was a one-room schoolhouse two miles away, and he and his siblings walked there and back every school day. By high school, Lon was well adapted to life on the farm and had become captain of both the football and basketball teams in the town of Shelburne. In his senior year, he was also named the Ontario High School Speaking Champion. He had already decided that college wasn’t for him, instead, he got his real estate license and soon became the top agent in the Orangeville Ontario region.

By 1973, he had joined his brothers in pursuing careers in the hospitality business. They started with a pizza shop, convenience store, and laundromat business. But they didn’t stop there. Lon and his brothers were on to bigger things. With the money they made selling this first business, they had enough to start their first nightclub. Ballinger’s Danceteria and Videotheque was a groundbreaking club in Cambridge, Ontario. 

Lon was not only concerned with running a successful business, he was determined to change the way outdated policies and unfair practices affected entrepreneurs like himself. In 1983, Lon successfully sued the Liquor License Board of Ontario to allow all liquor license holders the rights to open and close their businesses at their own discretion, and furthermore, to abolish old-fashioned blue laws that forced all liquor license holders to a 60 percent liquor 40 percent food ratio—a law that handicapped venues and establishments. This milestone case led the way to what is now the modern-day nightclub industry in Ontario. Also, in 1995, he successfully sued the online website Cybersquatters, a company that was stealing URLs that belonged to legitimate companies. This case paved the way for companies like PepsiCola, Delta Airlines, and even Madonna to recover their stolen URLs. 

Lon and his brothers thrived and eventually sold their business for a $1.5 million profit and moved to Toronto. Within five years they had built a real estate and nightclub empire that changed the entire makeup of Toronto’s commercial real estate and turned the city’s moribund nightlife culture into something exciting.  

Lon and his brothers knew then that they were ready to take on New York City. In 1988, they transformed the renowned Webster Hall in the crime-riddled East Village into a modern nightclub. They owned and operated this large-capacity venue so successfully for the next thirty years that it changed the nightlife culture in the region. 

Webster Hall was the first major nightclub to embrace the hip-hop culture in 1992. Lon was also the top-selling disc jockey in the world from 1998 to 2001 with Webster Hall Records as he sold three million CDs (and that was with no major record label support). More than ten of his albums charted on the Billboard Dance Music Charts, which contributed greatly to the burgeoning EDM (electronic dance music) culture. Webster Hall was also the first nightclub to have a website and to sell club tickets online (1993). In 2015, Webster Hall was the most tweeted music venue in the entire world. Pollstar selected Webster Hall as the best Nightclub in the world in 2016. 

Webster Hall was by all accounts the first modern nightclub and was known by many as the best nightclub ever created in New York. They hosted large events, dancing, and celebrities such as Madonna, Prince, and Mick Jagger, to name a few. It was an exciting time! Lon was right there at the center of a new era, watching it all happen. 

The Ballingers sold the Webster Hall brand name in 2017 for $45 million. Today, Lon and his brothers continue to push the envelope with a successful series of hospitality businesses throughout the Hudson Valley region. 

Lon now speaks on the history of an era and shares the secrets he’s learned as a successful businessman and nightclub owner. His talks are entertaining, engaging, and informative.

Lon currently lives in New York with his wife Lois, whom he met in 1971 and married in 1983. They have three children and four grandchildren.