Paula attended Hunter College before gaining admission to the Neighborhood Playhouse to study dancing.

[4] Her stage career began with The Grand Street Follies revues in 1924, and at the end of that year she made her dramatic debut in The Little Clay Cart.

She was also in the 1930 revue Sweet and Low, which starred Fannie Brice, George Jessel, and James Barton,[5] and appeared in Kiss and Tell, For Love or Money and Wake Up, Darling in the 1940s and 1950s.

She later played "Mrs. Fenty" in Paint Your Wagon and "Grandma Sarah" in The Outlaw Josey Wales (both with Clint Eastwood).

She appeared in Annie Hall and Zelig (both by Woody Allen), Dirty Dancing, and had an uncredited role in Moonstruck.