trouble passing variable to swf from html

I thought I had this problem figured out, but I don't. I'm using FlashMX. I have the following code in my html..
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0" width="150" height="500">
<param name="movie" value="flash/nav.swf?pagename=refs">
<param name="quality" value="high"><br>
<embed src="flash/nav.swf?pagename=refs" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="150" height="500"></embed></object>

I have a frame label called "refs" in my main movie timeline.
in frame one I have an action gotoandstop(pagename)

THe action is completely ignored by the swf. Am I supposed to first declare the variable in the swf as well? or somehow "get" the variable? should I consider the variable "pagename" in the swf a "label" or an "expression" I just don't get what I'm missing. THanks for helping.

It's possible that the frame corresponding to 'ref' isn't loaded at the time the script executes - you may need a preloader.

To check if you are receiving the correct value of pagename, you might want to try displaying it in a dynamic text field.

I think you are right. WIll check into this. thanks