ActionScript 2.0 :: Child Mc Button Not Connecting To Parent Mc?

i've gone over and over this for about a week now, and no luck. here's the deal. on the top level mc called "Scene 1" i've got links to the child pages as so:

Code:
on (release) {
_root.contentHolder.myHeight = 826;
_root.contentHolder.newLoc = 10;
heightAnimation();
}
myHeight adjust the footer to drop down to fit the height of the mc
newLoc is the frame # in the contentHolder mc

these work perfectly.

my issue is i've now got a button in the contentholder mc, not the main mc, that i need to do the same two functions. since the actionscript that these call lives in the main mc i assumed i could just use _parent:

Code:
on (release) {
_parent.contentHolder.myHeight = 826;
_parent.contentHolder.newLoc = 10;
heightAnimation();
}

this does not work.

i've tried several ways to make this happen, and no luck. if the buttons on the main mc all work great and call the new page mcs, then why won't the button in the child mc work?