The transfer of chirality from optically active propargyl and cinnamyl N-acyl-C-phenylglycinates to α-branched ketones may be achieved by sigmatropicrearrangements of oxazole Intermediates followed by catalytic hydrogenation of the resulting 3-oxazolinones and subsequent reductive ring cleavage. From ()-4-phenyl-3-buten-1-ol both enantiomers of 1,4-diphenyl-2-methylbutan-1-one (6) could be obtained