Embed Views Slideshow in html.tpl.php file

I am trying to embed a Views Slideshow view in my html.tpl.php file and cannot seem to get it to work.

I have the following code in my template.php file (the second part is the relevant part):

function mytheme_preprocess_page(&$vars, $hook) {
  // Remove the node title when on the front page
  if ($vars['is_front']) {
    $vars['title'] = '';
  }

  // Embed the Rotating Banner view into each page
  $vars['embedded_view'] = views_embed_view('rotating_banner','rotating_banner_block');
  $vars['scripts'] = drupal_get_js();
}

The machine name of my view is "rotating_banner" and the machine name of the block I want to embed is "rotating_banner_block".

I also have the following code in my html.tpl.php file:

<div id="views-slideshow-bg">
    <?php print $embedded_view; ?> 
</div>

The view is not displaying and I am getting the following error on all of my Drupal pages:

Notice: Undefined variable: embedded_view in include() (line 63 of /var/www/siteroot/sites/all/themes/mytheme/templates/html.tpl.php).

I attempted to follow the directions at this link, but have not had much success. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.