Jadis

One of the coolest little shops on Main Street that you can browse in and full of interesting curious and knick knacks — a number of them which have been used as props in various movies and TV shows. Quite a lot of things are also for sale and provide some pretty unique gift ideas — never seems to be open so glad I found it with the door open and folks going in the other day — it was definitely a bucket litem for a visit to Main St and glad I was able to go in and see the inside this trip. :-)

Fabulous store filled with intrigue. Treat yourself to a walk through, even if you aren’t shopping. The shop is like a museum of weird and awesome in addition to being a proper antique store. It’s places like this that make me love living here.

Last post was in 2010? Due for an update.
jAdis is like a museum of wonders, and it keeps odd hours sometimes. My greatest piece of advice I can give is to CALL AHEAD.
Their posted hours are noon — 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday (though they are talking of only being open Sundays soon), but Brandon D., Lee A., and I showed up at 4 on Saturday and were turned away due to their closing early after we waited around for someone to take down the «Back in 10 minutes» sign. We called ahead yesterday and were told they would be there ’til 5:30, so we headed on over when we finished our hike in the nearby mountains.
It’s $ 1 per person to get in ($ 100 brought down 99% if you pay cash), after you knock on the door and ask politely to be admitted.
The lady who let us in (I believe her name was Sue?) has been maintaining jAdis since the passing of Parke Meek, the store’s original owner. She owns and operates the bridal shop next door, Paris 1900, with elegant Edwardian wedding gowns. Sue is very knowledgeable about all of Parke’s stock, consisting largely of mechanical pieces that have been used in various motion pictures and television shows, and she serves as an invaluable guide throughout this shop of curiosities.
Everywhere you look there’s gauges, gears, Tesla coils, robots, antique devices, masks, globes, old scientific equipment, anatomical models, and so many neat objects in this space. It’s a little on the tight side, so the try to limit how many people come in at the same time.
The window display itself is pretty magical with a winged airship and biplanes whirring and clinking as they respectively flap, tilt, and spin around. A robot with an old mannequin head walks a mechanical dog and ringed Van de Graaff generators add more of the mad scientist feel to the window one gets just walking around the room.
jAdis does not allow photography (just leave the camera in the car). They allow for renting out the props in the shop. As mentioned many of them have appeared in some well-​known projects like «The Artist» and «The Prestige.»

The owner, Parke mekk passed away in January…
BUT the place and his collection live on!
Still the coolest shoppe on any main Street in USA
Still operated by his friends and his partner…
Still renting/​selling cool props and gadgets
Still the best buck you can spend in L.A.

Good luck catching this prop master’s gone awry storefront. If you are one of the lucky ones, look through the beakers and pseudo-​mad science props to find the crazy steam-​punkesque headpiece from the film «City of Lost Children.» That big metal looking woman in the window is from Fritz Lang’s «Metropolis». I heard the old curmudgeon looking uncomfortable smoking is the owner/​prop maker.

Finally after passing by this place 12 times, it’s open. The key to visiting this place is to come on a Sunday after 1PM before 5PM. Geek heaven.
This is a history museum of vastly different machines, scientific equipment, and academic oddities. Most of the stuff has been rented out to movies and used as non working props. There is a working Tesla coil — the machine that generates electricity at science museums.
I was surprised to see lots of things for sale — scientific instruments, books, optometry lenses and vision measuring equipment, globes, old typewriters.
The guy who gives the tour will give you an entertaining talk about the owner, the objects in the space, and lots of references to geniuses of the past.
Be nice, and ask before taking pics. I was able to take one «souvenir» photo of an obscure corner of the store.

OMG! The store is open! Well, no, there was the usual «be back in 10 minutes» sign that I have always seen on the door but then we actually saw someone go in yesterday afternoon.
It’s a $ 1 donation which is completely cheap to get your own personal storyteller who had random facts about every little thing in the store. I especially adored the story about the 1920s French mannequin which has turned into a rockin’ robot sporting a svelte silver body.
They have a working Tesla coil but it’s illegal to actually turn it on. Everything in the store could be rented for props but some items were marked for sale including ooky bugs, books and what seemed like the world’s largest collection of beakers, microscopes and other old-​fashioned laboratory stuff.
This place is definitely one of my favorite things about Main Street. I love watching all the mechanical stuff in the window and the carved archway (hand carved by the owner) is amazing.
So many stories, so little time.

Jadis is an idiomatic French phrase that loosely means «sit, here’s a story». Jadis is a primarily a prop rental store, and the owner is a self-​taught engineer and builder. He was the Eames’ chief fabricator, a master of softening and bending wood. A collector, he began buying gauges, meters, and odds and ends at garage sales and selling them to other collectors decades before eBay.
Jadis is stuffed full of original Bausch microscopes, Tesla coils, medical mirror arrays, and antiques of every imaginable sort. It is a magical place to bring a child, even adults will wander around mouths agape. There’s more that a little whackjobbery to be found, for you can’t collect these sorts of things without being more than a little crazy yourself. Terry Gilliam loved the front window gears and toys so much he replicated them in his flying airships in Baron Munchausen. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis robot, functioning Van de Graaf generators, posters, spectacles, and curiosities abound. Very much a curiosity cabinet, like The Museum of Jurassic Technology, but much more bric-​à-​brac.
Jadis is rarely open to the public — the shop is by appointment only, often just for prop rentals. But on the days the door is open it’s well worth the dollar contribution to step inside and look around.

You will see this corner-​location store and say, «Whaaaaaaat?» It is movie props rental, right in the middle of a trendy retail shopping district. Their window displays are beyond unusual… more like bizarre. This place gets 5 stars for jaw-​dropping shock value.