Santa Monica’s 'mad scientist vibe' prop shop turns 50 — it’s hoping for 50 more

It's difficult to define jAdis, which turns 50 this year in Santa Monica. It's a movie prop house, a museum of pre-computer-era oddities, a cabinet of curiosities and a retail store.

So what's its unifying theme?

A “mad scientist vibe,” according to owner Susan Lieberman. She added that jAdis’ versatility is how it’s been able to survive the volatility of the entertainment industry, while so many other prop houses closed.

“I'm lucky in that I didn't start out as a prop house, that I'm on a commercial stretch, and so I can go back to my retail roots,” said Lieberman. “ That is a large part of my survival now, because I use the props to display the goods that I sell, and it adds a very cool ambiance in here.”

Inside Jadis. (Photo by Natalie Chudnovsky for LAist)

What's inside

When you walk inside jAdis, located on Main Street, you might feel like you've found yourself inside a mad collector's lab. There are giant interlocking gears, microscopes, cabinets filled with old postcards and eyeglasses, and quack science devices from the turn of the century.

You've likely seen some of these objects before, in movies like "The Prestige," "Batman and Robin" and "Oppenheimer."

To understand the store's ethos, look at its stock of science magazines from the 1920s.

"You know, in those days it was happening — the car and the airplane and radio and electricity! Lieberman said. "It was such a heady time of invention."

Lieberman said she has tried to "keep the focus of this period," while bringing in items people might like to purchase.

"Not everyone wants to buy a big robot or a knife switch, so I try to have toys for kids that are vintage inspired," she said.

So for the children, you get make-it-yourself flip books, Newton's cradles and gyroscopes.

For a set decorator, it's a different kind of toy chest.

"It's like a mixture of eclectic steampunk, BioShock art-deco-type pieces, oscilloscopes and scientific cutters, and all the electrical weird bulbs that they don't make anymore," said Brandi Kalish, a set decorator for TV and movies. She rented props from jAdis in 2015 for the show "Teen Wolf."

Even the name of the store's a throwback.

"It's a French word," Lieberman said. "It means 'a long time ago' or 'in the past,' used mostly in literature. It's kind of an old term, but I thought it was very melodic."

Some of the curiosities inside Jadis. (Photo by Natalie Chudnovsky for LAist)

For Hollywood, it has to 'look great'

"It's a mix in here of rare and fake," Lieberman said.

For an example of something rare, take the hemodimagnometer. It's a wooden cabinet with a 4-by-6 grid of knobs. It was patented in the 1930s, during the height of interest in the now-debunked science of "radionics."

The idea: that a doctor could treat a patient by manipulating their aura, or vibrations. Lieberman said its a popular rental piece, and it's been used in productions including "The X-Files."

For an example of something fake, take the "radio table," a large black machine that gets its name from the radio coils on its surface, mixed in with rheostats, street lamp bulbs, and different gauges.

"It really makes no sense, but it looks cool," Lieberman said. "And as a prop, that's all it has to do. It's Hollywood, it just has to look great."

Where did all this stuff come from?

Most of the fake stuff at jAdis, like the radio table, was invented and built by Parke Meek, an obsessive, lifelong collector, as well as a carpenter and self-taught engineer.

Most of the objects in jAdis are a result of his his and Lieberman's efforts to collect them.

"My partner's idea of collecting was — if it looked cool, add it to the inventory," Lieberman said. "He was inspired by Mel Brooks' film 'Young Frankenstein,' so anything that fit that theme, he would pick up."

The history

Meek and Lieberman opened jAdis in the mid-1970s. But to get the full picture of jAdis, you have to go back to Meek's childhood in Indiana.

When Meek was growing up, his best friend's father owned a scrap yard, Lieberman said. So Meek and his friend would look through trash together.

This was in the 1930s, when people were throwing out Victorian things, and Meek would take them home and stash them in his family's attic.

When Meek returned to Indiana after serving in the Pacific in World War II, he opened up an antique shop with all the items he'd collected as a boy. That shop would have several iterations — including, finally, jAdis.

In his life, Meek worked with architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller. He and Lieberman met when they were both working for the Eames design team.

Lieberman and Meek would go antiquing on weekends, sometimes selling their finds at the flea market. In 1976, they opened jAdis as an antique shop.

At one point, Meek designed and built a successful line of 1930s art deco furniture. But then he decided that he was bored with building chairs and wanted to make movie props instead, Lieberman said.

So in the 1990s, jAdis also became a prop house.

Hard times

The prop business ebbs and flows, depending on what's going on in Hollywood.

"There was a lull somewhere between '08 and '09 in Los Angeles, and work was scarce," Kalish said. "During that time, there were tax incentives in Detroit, Atlanta, the Carolinas, Canada. And a lot of work was going out of town."

At a time when many prop houses had to close or retool, jAdis was able to stay open, according to Lieberman, because it could fall back on its original concept: retail.

The bigger blow for the shop came in 2010, when Meek died at 86. Lieberman started thinking about closing down the store. The L.A. Times came to jAdis to write a farewell article.

"Somehow in the course of the interview for the article, we ended up announcing a sale. People were lined up around the block," Lieberman said. "People waited at least four hours to get in. I just didn't realize that there was the curiosity and that people loved the space. So it was very emotional for me."

Owner Susan Lieberman stands inside Jadis. (Photo by Natalie Chudnovsky for LAist)

She was overwhelmed, Lieberman said, so she took a break. At the time, she was running a vintage ladies boutique next door called Paris 1900, which was the more lucrative business.

But then she got a call from a set decorator.

"He was working on an art film and said that Meek's things would be perfect for it," Lieberman said.

That art film was "The Artist," which won an Oscar for best picture in 2012. That slowly got Lieberman and jAdis back on track.

"It was a combination of this fortuitous rental and just the sheer support I got from the community, that I thought maybe I can continue the store," Lieberman said.

At first she opened the shop only on Sundays so she could operate Paris 1900, but in 2014, she closed down the ladies' boutique to focus all her energies on jAdis.

"I just had an epiphany one day, that I was done with women and clothing, that I just wanted nerds and kids and just to have fun," Lieberman said.

Inside Jadis. Chudnovsky for LAist)

jAdis today

For Kalish, jAdis is a window into the behind-the-scenes world of Hollywood.

"It gives the public an opportunity to see inside the set decorator world," she said.

As for Lieberman, she said she wants jAdis to be a surprise and a place where people can experience objects from a different time.

"Sometimes I have older people come in that recall using these things in their jobs, and then they'll explain it to their kids or grandkids," Lieberman said. "It's a teaching tool. It's nostalgic. My hope is that it's uplifting."

Her goal: to maintain the magic that she and Meek created.

"I hopefully honor what he built here by keeping it unique and bringing wonder."

Inside Jadis. (Photo by Natalie Chudnovsky for LAist)

This was also a radio story on KPCC's The Frame. Listen to it here.