House used by Fonda, Stewart burned

WOODS HOLE, Mass., Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A fire has destroyed a house in Massachusetts where actors Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart honed their acting skills in the 1920s and '30s, a historian said.

The house in Woods Hole was a practice spot for a theater group known as the University Players, said Jennifer Gaines, curator of the Woods Hole Historical Museum.

The Cape Cod (Mass.) Times reported Sunday that a fire swept through the second floor of the house on Tuesday. The house was owned by Frederick and Marguerite Smith.

In 1928, the University Players -- named as such because their founders were students at Harvard, Princeton and Radcliffe -- each tossed $100 into a kitty for operating capital, the newspaper reported.