Trouble writing dynamic function, with attached MCs

programming flash
1

Okay, I’ve been smashing my skull on this for about a week now.

The goal: when the user clicks on the button, a movie clip appears. The user can click and drag this movie clip around the stage. Click on another button, a new movie clip instance appears, and can be dragged around, etc., ad nauseum.

If I hard-code the script on each button, the script works fine:

var i=1;
btn1.onRelease=function(){
    //increment i
        i++;
        //create an emptymovieclip
    _root.createEmptyMovieClip("hold1", i);
    with(hold1){
        _x=btn1._x;
        _y=btn1._y;
    }
    //attach movie clip from library
    hold1.attachMovie("infobar", "iBar", i)
    trace(hold1.iBar);
    //add text
    hold1.iBar.tField.text="Number "+i;
    //click and drag
    hold1.iBar.onPress=function(){
        hold1.iBar.startDrag();    
    }
    hold1.iBar.onRelease=stopDrag;
}

All well and good, except I’ll eventually have fifty-odd buttons. Ecch. But when I try to build a reuseable function from that code, all that happens is that my button instances shift around the stage:

var i=1;
function grabIt(button, words, holder) {
    //button.enabled = false;
    goAway();
    //increment i
    i++;
    //create emptymovieclip
    _root.createEmptyMovieClip(holder, i);
    trace(holder);
    with (holder) {
        _x = button._x;
        _y = button._y;
    }
    //attach movie clip from library
    holder.attachMovie("infobar", "iBar", i);
    holder.iBar.tField.text = words;
    //drag functions
    holder.iBar.onPress = function() {
        holder.iBar.startDrag();
    };
    holder.iBar.onRelease = stopDrag;
}
//
btn1.onRelease = function() {
    grabIt(btn1, "T'John", "a");
};

The movie clip never is attached, and all the buttons shift position. I know there’s probably a better/easier way to do this, but right now I can’t see it. Any help is appreciated!!