Ghost of a Chance: A Memoir

"A tale told with wit and charm . . . It is a sprightly, engaging, and at times hilarious look back at a life spent in music, show business, and what used to be called society."
The Boston Globe

"A bittersweet gem of a book . . . The story of Duchin's life has an elegiac aura of glamour and tragedy that might have come directly from the imagination of F. Scott Fitzgerald."
The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Peter Duchin's glamorous story is about absent fathers, surrogate mothers, and dwelling on the edges of money and power in a tuxedoed world."
Gay Talese

"A great read . . . This book brings back marvelous memories of a very special time."  
Frank Sinatra

The New York Times Book Review said that Peter Duchin was a living compendium of a hundred years of social history. . . . He has lived a life another man would not have survived.  Orphaned by his glamorous parents, the Newport debutante Marjorie Oelrichs and the famous bandleader Eddy Duchin, he was raised in the privileged, old-money world of Averell Harriman, the diplomat and former governor of New York. He grew up to be America's preeminent society bandleader, effortlessly entertaining and charming partygoers at Truman Capote's Black and White Ball, the White House, and thousands of society galas. As he recalls his life and relates the frank, often surprising recollections of the many friends and famous figures who made up the strange family  of his youth, Duchin also explores the changing face of social life in America.