The Edsel team was betting on the notion that American consumers would keep spending more and more for flashier cars. But one month to the day after E-Day, the national mood abruptly shifted. The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, which seemed to endanger every American hamlet. Many Americans insisted that money wasted on frivolous gimmicks should go instead to education, especially in math and science.

Exactly nine days after Sputnik — the timing seemed like a bad practical joke — Ford staged a live Sunday-night TV spectacular on CBS, “The Edsel Show,” starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong, with what was later called a “surprise appearance” by Bob Hope. Unable, even during this scripted hour, to avoid the dreaded specter on anxious Americans’ minds, Sinatra predicted that Hope, known for his morale-building visits to the front lines, would someday be “the first man to entertain the troops in outer space.” Crosby shot back, “The first man to sputter on Sputnik!”

The Edsel faltered almost instantly. The car had quality problems — Consumer Reports noted its “tendency to shake like jelly” — and, adding insult to Sputnik’s injury, the economy was sinking into recession. In November 1957, the only Edsel dealer in Manhattan, Charles Kreisler, closed down his three-showroom franchise after two months, explaining that “sales were poor, and competition was stiff.”