The Lil’wrekker is in a Harvey production (she’s the young nurse)
The Doctor says, in reference to Elwood, at one point "Outdated as a cast iron deer.
Does anyone know what this means?
…outdated as one, isn’t it?
Yes. I’ll edit it. Thx.
I don’t believe that it has some great hidden meaning. A cast iron garden ornament might have been fashionable in an earlier time, but at the time of the play, it would have been seen as old fashioned.
Cast iron deer were apparently a popular lawn sculpture for a few decades after the Civil War. Also known as “Fisk Deer” after the J. W. Fiske Iron Works in New York.
An updated simile might be “As outdated as a pink flamingo” or “lawn jockey”.
Not to mention that the play is from 1944.
Here’s Walt Disney getting his deer, including Bambi, ready for salvage:
There’s an episode of the radio show “The Great Gildersleeve” (from just after Pearl Harbor) where they’re trying to sell an old iron deer to raise money for Christmas presents.
In Elizabeth Enright’s classic children’s book Then There Were Five, a family live in a house with two such decorative deer. (The house is probably late nineteenth century.)
Tell me if I’m way off base. We think the Doctor was saying Elwood was odd and old fashioned.
Nowadays you would say, " …out of place same as ashtrays and column shifts"
A. D. Fisk (also from New York) made Iron Coffins around the same time. Curious.
Bingo!
@Skywatcher Excellent point about the contemporary scrap drive.
History, man. Another reason why I love this place.
Life sized cast iron deer? Wonder what that would weigh?
I have no eye deer.
Haven’t been to Parma, Ohio have you? Pink flamingos have long been associated with the Cleveland suburb. I think they got a big boost in the 1960s from being frequently mentioned on the Ghoulardi radio show. Or maybe he started the whole thing. They are now the city’s official mascot and on display all over the place. Yeah, I know, that’s one town. But give them proper respect or you will be chased around the block by a Polish polka band brandishing kielbasa links like light sabers.
OK, here here is the history of the splashy birds:
https://parmaobserver.com/read/2020/08/04/so-whats-up-with-parma-and-flamingos
I see your point. 
