October 13: "The Edsel Show" with Crosby and Sinatra airs on this date in 1957

No car ever received — or likely will ever get again — the introduction that the Edsel did. Henry Ford II was determined to make the Edsel a pillar of the company, and his marketing team used every weapon they had. Ford called the Edsel's debut "E Day," and had the windows of the new Edsel dealers covered until the car could be revealed in September 1957. On this date in 1957, Ford took over Ed Sullivan's time slot on CBS with a live one-hour special: "The Edsel Show," starring Bing Crosby and featuring Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Rosemary Clooney and Bob Hope. The first CBS show broadcast from videotape to West Coast audiences drew some 50 million viewers, the highest-rated entertainment program of that year, and its success led to Crosby's late-career resurgence as a TV host. (Without Edsel, there'd be no duets with David Bowie.) Yet all the marketing in the world couldn't save the inherent flaws in the Edsel's pricing, design and quality; Clooney herself would write years later that when she went to drive off in her Edsel, "I opened the door of my car and the handle came off. I turned to (Henry Ford II), holding it out to him. 'About your car...'" Here's the introduction with Crosby and Armstrong, showing off the sharpness that made videotape the standard for 50 years: