In 1941, while on leave from the latter position, Allen ran for Los Angeles City Council District 8 in an election to succeed 12-year veteran Councilman Evan Lewis.

He died in Whittier, California on August 23, 1964, and was interred at Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena.

[4] During debate on a proposal to establish an interracial committee "devoted to the interests of so-called minority groups," Allen said he was opposed because he was, "convinced that this is a Communistic setup and that the people who have been associated with this effort have been misled."

[5] He voted in favor of a resolution condemning the sending of individual letters by city councilmen to support any given radio station in making an application to the Federal Communications Commission.

He denounced an organization, the Hollywood Community Radio Group, Inc., which had solicited such letters because its membership, he said, "contains names of persons with reputed Communist sympathies.