PETER DUCHIN was born in New York City in 1937, the son of Eddy Duchin and Marjorie Oelrichs Duchin. He was educated at Hotchkiss and Yale. Duchin made his professional debut as a bandleader in 1962 at the Maisonette at the St. Regis Hotel in New York. He soon became one of the preeminent pianists and bandleaders in America, performing for every president from Lyndon Johnson to Bill Clinton. He is the author of a previous memoir, Ghost of a Chance.PATRICIA BEARD, a native New Yorker, is the author of ten non-fiction books, one novel, and hundreds of magazine articles. A former features editor of Town & Country and Mirabella, and the former contributing editor of ELLE, she is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College.