Thanks for the help Jon,
You got me thinking about the problem the right way, which ultimately led to a solution.
I ended up using CSS and creating a new class with the background gradient I needed as a background-image. I added 200 pixels of space to dead space to the top of the gradient image to allow for the Flash Header.
Then applied the class to the <Table> tag in the rectangle_top.tpl
Worked perfectly
you can see the results here:
http://www.themarquistheater.com/store/xcart/home.php
Once the store is live it will be here
http://www.themarquistheater.com/store/home.php
Anyway, thanks for the nudge in the right direction, sometimes that's all it takes.
JB