A color photograph of an empty club and dance floor. In the foreground a row of identical tables, chairs and ashtrays follow a curved pony wall from the corner left toward the center of the photograph. In the background there is a large platform stage with musical instruments and amplifiers

Allen was born in Detroit, served in the US Navy during World War II, attended various professional photography schools, graduated from Wayne State University in 1962, and taught many photography classes and workshops, including stints at Wayne State, University of Michigan Extension, Henry Ford Community College, SF State and UC Berkeley Extension. He had other employment periods at the Detroit Free Press, Brooks Camera and other studios in Detroit, and was a producer of postcards for much of his life.

His first interest in photography occurred in 1936 at age 13 when attending Cass Technical High School in Detroit, where he majored in Commercial Art. He joined the Navy after graduating from high school, and after WWII, attended Pasadena's Art Center College of Design (LA campus) on the GI Bill. Following several years in the Los Angeles and Newport Beach areas, attending school and practicing professional photography, he returned to Detroit. In 1953, Allen entered a photography contest sponsored by the Detroit Zoo and Cunningham's Drugs, winning first prize, a new 1953 Ford.