Judith Allen

Allen was born Marie Elliott in New York City, and she grew up in Belmont, Massachusetts. She attended Leland Powers School in Boston^[5] and gained acting experience with a stock theater company.^[6]

Using the name Mari Colman, Allen worked as a commercial model in New York for the Walter Thornton Modeling Agency.^[7] That was where she was selected for a leading role in the film This Day and Age (1933).^[6] The role led to her name change to Judith Allen. Robert S. Birchard wrote about the process in his book, Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood, comparing it to "a comic sequence in David O. Selznick's 1937 production of A Star Is Born."^[8]

Birchard related: "Mari Colman was subjected to the same treatment as DeMille, and Paramount tested long lists of potential screen names.... Somehow, the name ultimately bestowed upon her was Judith Allen."^[8]

Allen married wrestler Gus Sonnenberg in 1931 in New York City. They divorced on September 23, 1933, in Reno, Nevada.^[9] She married Irish boxer, professional wrestler, actor, and a tenor Jack Doyle on April 28, 1935, in Agua Caliente, Mexico. She filed for divorce or annulment of the marriage but also was quoted saying she hoped for reconciliation. She filed a $2 million suit against the Dodge heiress she said was trying to steal Doyle away. ^{[6] [10]}