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Santa Monica curiosity shop Jadis begins its farewell

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They must be running through bottles of Windex over at Jadis, on Santa Monica’s Main Street. An endless stream of people has been pressed up against the glass, peering inside at Parke Meek’s seldom-open, oddity-packed domain. Is that a Tesla coil hulking in the shadows? Do the aged black telephones work?

Part old curiosity shop, mainly a prop house, Jadis stood as a monument to Meek’s lifelong fascination with the improbably possible. Meek died in early January at age 86, and the inventory is now being liquidated.

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Take a peek inside the store so many admired but never entered.

-- Ariel Swartley

Photo (top): A passerby peers at a model dirigible in the store’s window. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

Photo (bottom): A picture of Meek holding the best sign ever. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

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