. . . . . . "Due to Rice's celebrity, he mingled in many creative and political circles, and he corresponded with many of the day's leading actors, artists, journalists, political activists, politicians, writers, and other influential members of New York society such as Brooks Atkinson, Roger Baldwin, Lucille Ball, Marc Connelly, Morris Ernst, Oscar Hammerstein, John Haynes Holmes, Langston Hughes, Helen Hayes" . . . .