is any hydrocarbyl and x is any halogen e g chlorine preferably in a non interfering medium preferably diethyl ether and thf the indenyl alkali metalide is prepared treating indene with an alkali metal alkyl in an ether medium at a temperature of u2212 10 to u2212 20 u00b0 c alkali metal alkyls useful in this invention have the formula mor wherein m is any alkali metal and r is an alkyl group typically a c 1 to c 10 alkyl group n butyllithium is preferred the alkali metalide synthesis reaction mixture typically comprises the selected alkali metal alkyl and the ether medium in which it is produced hydrocarbyl bridged indenes may be produced by combining a selected terminal dibromoalkane and thf with an appropriate metalide synthesis reaction mixture alternatively the alkali metalide may first be isolated from the reaction mixture in which it is synthesized according to one embodiment of the invention the isolated indenide alkali metalide and thf are then reacted with a dibromoalkane typically at room temperature wherein a reaction mixture containing a hydrocarbyl bridged indene is produced no reaction occurs upon combination of the dibromoalkane with the alkali metalide reaction mixture in ethyl ether indene in diethyl ether 1 25 equivalents was treated with buli in ethyl ether at u2212 20 u00b0 c to provide reaction mixture containing lithium indenide pursuant to equation 2 the lithium indenide containing reaction mixture.