Allen was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1892 to Frederick Siegler and Flora Wood. He started working as a cameraman around 1914, picking up dozens of credits over the ensuing decades on films by directors like Lois Weber and Sam Newfield. During World War II, he took a break from Hollywood to serve in the U.S. Naval Reserve's photographic and motion picture unit.[5] He had two daughters with his wife, Gertrude.