The stars brighter than MB = -8 in the large Magellanic Cloud.

Observations of the 45 brightest stars in Sanduleak's LMC catalog show that in general they are similar to the brightest stars in the SMC, although the LMC contains four early-type stars with extremely strong Hfl emission and four F8 to G4 stars which have no counterparts in the SMC. Comparison with the Radcliffe spectral types shows that c1 becomes insensitive to temperature in the most luminous early-type supergiants, and consequently B-type supergiants with W-R companions are photometrically indistinguishable from Of stars. The reddening for the brightest stars in the LMC and the SMC is nearly identical. The upper limit in stellar luminosity is well defined and the same in both Clouds: = - 11, which implies a maximum stellar mass of 90 . The rate of formation of massive stars per unit galactic mass is of the same order of magnitude in both Clouds at present. The most luminous stars are B1-B3 supergiants, implying that the blue supergiant phase is relatively long-lived in massive supergiants. Subject headings: luminous stars - Magellanic Clouds - massive stars - stellar statistics