So 20 years later, Sloan is at it again. He has put MGM back in the movie business, enlisting an approach to movie economics that he hopes fixes what's wrong with Hollywood's "broken studio system." Sloan's strategy at MGM is based on the belief that studios excel at marketing and distributing movies but fail at developing and producing them cost-effectively.
So at MGM, Sloan is leaving the moviemaking to outside producers whose budgets are not burdened by unnecessary costs. MGM also operates without the enormous overhead and infrastructure big studios carry, with only a single building, no back lot or sound stages and only 400 employees. Sloan, who began his career as an entertainment attorney representing television stars, believes his best bet is to align MGM with talent -- even actors who may have fallen out of favor.
He recently struck a deal with Tom Cruise to revive MGM's dormant sister label United Artists after the actor was fired by Paramount Pictures and snubbed by other studios.
MGM also agreed to promote and release "Rocky Balboa" last December, the latest in the franchise, despite the view that its star, Sylvester Stallone, was box office poison.
"Selling me at that time was no easy task," Stallone said. "You would have had better luck selling anthrax in a Pez dispenser."
Though Stallone gives Sloan credit, there are plenty of doubters. Many question whether the man known as a shrewd salesman can actually pull off this ambitious plan to salvage MGM. In the eyes of some, he's little more than bluster. But in typical Hollywood fashion, detractors were willing to talk behind his back but wouldn't attach their name to derogatory remarks.
For Sloan, such skepticism only drives him harder.
"It's exciting, the jeopardy that it can go either way," said Sloan, who loves taking risks and finds gambling a thrill. "I'd always end up doing better in Vegas when I began the first day by losing. I like having to come from behind."
Meager beginnings
Sloan grew up in a working-class Jewish family. His father worked in the parts department of Douglas Aircraft, and his mother was a substitute teacher.
"Harry grew up pretty close to poor, and he worked hard to get out of that," said Larry Kuppin, Sloan's former business partner. "It definitely affected him. He has a strong drive to succeed."
But Hollywood was far from his sights in his youth. Politics were his passion. He plastered his bicycle with "John F. Kennedy for President" stickers.
