  Ellipsoidal red giant binaries are close binary systems where an unseen,
relatively close companion distorts the red giant, leading to light variations
as the red giant moves around its orbit. These binaries are likely to be the
immediate evolutionary precursors of close binary planetary nebula and
post-asymptotic giant branch and post-red giant branch stars. Due to the MACHO
and OGLE photometric monitoring projects, the light variability nature of these
ellipsoidal variables has been well studied. However, due to the lack of radial
velocity curves, the nature of their masses, separations, and other orbital
details has so far remained largely unknown. In order to improve this
situation, we have carried out spectral monitoring observations of a large
sample of 80 ellipsoidal variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud and we have
derived radial velocity curves. At least 12 radial velocity points with good
quality were obtained for most of the ellipsoidal variables. The radial
velocity data are provided with this paper. Combining the photometric and
radial velocity data, we present some statistical results related to the binary
properties of these ellipsoidal variables.
