"[2] Allen was born on September 2, 1906, in Manhattan, New York, to Charles Thomas Henshall and Grace Esther Selby.

Following her mother's death when Allen was 9, she went to live with an aunt and uncle in Los Angeles.

She was educated at Los Angeles High School, UCLA, Stanford University, and the Sorbonne.

In 1953, as Vera, she hosted her own television series, Follow the Leader, a CBS audience participation show.

[citation needed] She also did voices for animation, especially for the Walt Disney Animation Studios, most notably as the voice of Fauna, the green fairy, in Sleeping Beauty (1959), Goliath II's mother in Goliath II (1960), and the Scullery Maid in The Sword in the Stone (1963), her final film role.