THE ENABLER

Ever since the Enabler learned that the actors who played the Munchkins in “The Wizard of Oz” stayed at the 1924 Culver Hotel during filming (and allegedly slept width-wise, three to a bed) we have obsessed over the place. The hotel’s lobby bar, Duke’s Hideaway, is named after John Wayne -- who, legend has it, bought the hotel from Charlie Chaplin for a dollar during a poker game.

The Enabler ambled into Duke’s on a recent Sunday afternoon with our hat cocked and shoes shined, looking forward to a chilled martini in the classic Renaissance-revival space with its high ceilings, huge arched windows and polished floors. Instead of meeting a doe-eyed beauty in a cloche hat, we found rows of seniors waiting to hear the stylings of the Nucleus Ensemble. The young sextet promised dalliances into experimental new music, so we decided to stay. Ten minutes into what turned out to be New Age-y flute etudes (which made us want to run to the nearest masseuse or forest of elfin faeries) we watched four audience members fall asleep.

We don’t blame the Nucleus Ensemble so much as the fact that the much-vaunted Culver City art revival seems to have missed one of its landmarks. What a shame -- we hear the group accommodations upstairs are excellent.

9400 Culver Blvd., (310) 838-7963

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