The reductive cleavage of methyl vinyl-β-ionyl ether (1) or the deprotonation of 3,2Ј,6Ј,6Ј-tetramethyl-5-(1-cyclohexenyl)-1,3-pentadiene (2) gives rise to an organometallic C 15 species that combines selectively with a variety of electrophiles at the terminal chain position. Its reaction with aldehydes, however, is less clean. In particular, (E)-β-formyl-2-butenyl acetate gives the expected adduct 7a and, after dehydration, vitamin A acetate only in poor yield. The same is true for the analogous reaction with 2,7-dimethyl-2,4,6-octa-3-Methoxy-3-methyl-1-(2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexenyl)-1,4-pentadiene (1), quantitatively obtained by the treatment of vinyl-β-ionol with sodium hydride and methyl iodide in tetrahydrofuran or with dimethyl sulfate in the presence of sodium hydroxide under phase-transfer conditions, is readily cleaved by lithium metal or sodium/potassium alloy. The resulting heptatrienyl-type organometallic C 15 entity [1Ϫ3] can be trapped by standard electrophiles to afford, for example, the hydrocarbon 3, the silane 4 or the alcohol 5. As we have found more recently, the same C 15 species can be generated conveniently by the deprotonation of 3-methyl-5-(2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexenyl)-1,3-pentadiene (2) with sec-butyllithium or the superbasic mixture of butyllithium and potassium tert-butoxide. The required triene is easily prepared by a Wittig olefination of (E)-2-methyl-4-(2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexenyl)-2-butenal, [4Ϫ5] the key building block in the Isler/Hoffmann-LaRoche syntheses of vitamin A [5Ϫ7] and β-carotene. [7Ϫ8] (E)-3-Formyl-2-butenyl acetate is, along with vinyl-β-ionol, the major component of the Pommer/BASF route [9Ϫ10] to vitamin A. When this aldehyde was allowed to react with the organometallic C 15 species, regardless of [a] 3903 triendial, which ultimately affords β-carotene. Vitamin A acetate can also be prepared, this time in moderate yield, by functionalization through consecutive deprotonation, borylation, oxidation and acetylation of a C 20 pentaene hydrocarbon having the required skeleton. Both the C 15 and the C 20 organometallic key intermediates adopt spontaneously a zigzag-like outstretched conformation which, upon electrophilic trapping, directly and exclusively leads to the all-(E) configuration.