Vale was born in Buffalo, New York and educated in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

[citation needed] Her high school friends in Rochester, New York, where she was raised, knew her as Vola Smith.

Her ambition was to play Madame Butterfly with an actual Japanese company, as well as to act as Lorna Doone.

It is the ability of the actress to see and note of the little things in life and then store them in her subconscious mind where they await her call to use at the psychological moment before the camera that enables her to either register success in her chosen work, or be merely mediocre.

Vale modeled clothes for the Broadway Department Store in Los Angeles, California.

A 1916 photo from the Los Angeles Times shows her in an exclusive Betty Wales frock from Broadway.

Fellow members were Mildred Davis, Helen Ferguson, Patsy Ruth Miller, Clara Horton, Gertrude Olmstead, Laura La Plante, Virginia Fox, Colleen Moore, ZaSu Pitts, Lois Wilson, May McAvoy, Gloria Hope, Virginia Valli, Carmel Myers, Edna Murphy, and Carmelita Geraghty.