Roy Fromer stood with one foot in the future and the other in the past. While very aware of modern commercial items such as plastic "disposables", he harks back to earlier times. Like others of his generation, he revels in the halcyon days of magic, long before he was born, revealed through antique books, fading periodicals, and stories told to him by older magicians. Roy retained the language of the young as he reflected in his style and ideas. While at the same time, he placed great value on the time-honored traditions of magic. With this in mind, Roy Fromer chose to "new think" and update The Cups and Balls for the benefit of young and old alike. We know that both beginners and experts will find instructive material in this book.

One of the first tricks a magician learns is "The Cups". It rests on his shelf through the years as the romantic symbol of his being a "magician", and sentimentally as one of his first pieces of "conjuring apparatus". Every trade has its symbolic tools, and its real material, so some magicians pass up the opportunity to "play around" with "The Cups and Balls", but are in awe of the tradition and the nostalgia of the effect. They go on to other tricks, and use "The Cups" as hallmarks on business cards, letterheads, and bookplates. Sacrilege? No, Roy did it himself ... that's how he knew.

So...It is with this in mind that Roy goes back. Buy the old girl a new dress, and return with her to the applause and footlights, the golden days of magic, the performance of "The Cups and Balls".