handle "About..." menupick on OS X

[Kurt Kaufman]

I know this has come up before, but a search through recent months' list 
archives has not turned up an answer:
(Using OS X)
Short of installing a menubar using the menu manager (with File, Edit 
and Help menus I do not need), is there any way I can handle the 
menupick message generated by selecting the "About..." menuitem under 
the menu named for the standalone itself?
If I install a menubar using menu manager (set to function as Mac 
menubar) and I remove the File, Edit and Help menus, I can't write a 
script that will handle the "About..." menupick message. If I leave the 
three menus in, however, the script works. If I do not install a menubar 
using menu manager, again, it doesn't work.
For testing purposes, the script I was using was:
on menupick which
   if which is "About..."
   answer "About... was selected"
end menupick

--also tried "About", etc. The actual menuitem seemed to vary based on 
whether a menubar was actually installed.

What AM I doing?

thanks, Kurt