of 2-phenylpropionaldehyde (7) with methylcyanoacetate (8) produced methyl (E)-2-cyano-4-phenylpent-2-enoate (9) and the two highly fluorescent secondary products, 2-amino-3-carbomethoxy-6-phenyl-4-(1-phenylethyl)pyridine (10) and 3-cyano-6-phenyl-4-(1-phenylethyl)-2-pyridone (11). The structure of 10 was determined by X-ray crystallography while the structure of 11 was confirmed by the conversion