Preloader and transition tutorial help...path trouble

Sorry to ad another to the many questions regarding this. I am new to action script, but have managed to Gorilla this thing a bit. quick question that is driving me crazy.

i have taken the 3 buttons from the tutorial and placed them in an external swf. I use Load Movie to grab that SWF and place it in an empty clip called thumb_box… I would think that the new AS should be simply this

the AS frame on the main movie…

loadMovie (“thumbnails.swf”, _root.thumb_box);
thumb_box.b1.onRelease = function() {
if (_root.section != “profile.swf”) {
_root.section = “profile.swf”;
_root.transition.gotoAndPlay(“closing”);
}
};
thumb_box.b2.onRelease = function() {
if (_root.section != “gallery.swf”) {
_root.section = “gallery.swf”;
_root.transition.gotoAndPlay(“closing”);
}
};
thumb_box.b3.onRelease = function() {
if (_root.section != “photos.swf”) {
_root.section = “photos.swf”;
_root.transition.gotoAndPlay(“closing”);
}
};

This loads the buttons, but they don’t trigger the effects or load the files. I have tried adding _root as well as _level0 before thumb_box, but it is driving me crazy.

PLEASE I would really appreciate some help. I imagine it is something very simple, I just can’t track it dow.

Thanks in advance,
dstole