I really appreciate your help. I'll stick with the second method.

I might have something set in the theme.css or somewhere else that conflicts with both your first suggested solution and the third one. Neither of those works for me.

Your first script works well enough for me.

Thanks for your help again. I'll post something about this in the features request thread.

Thanks Steven.

The first method didn't work for me. I got the flash of the background image and then the page reverted to the default black and stayed there.

The java script works -- it's not exactly elegant -- with the flash of the image -- blackout delay - and then the page appears. My site is purely for private family use so no harm but I doubt most people would find it acceptable.

It seems to me there such be a better solution.

Where do I specify the background image in order to get it to appear on the login or password page?
I had it working. But I can't remember what I did. I assume its in the theme.css. Do I have to make the background color transparent as well?