Roth was born on December 13, 1910, in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Katie (née Silverman) and Arthur Rutstein. Her family was Jewish. She was only 6 years old when her mother took her to Educational Pictures, where she became the company's trademark, symbolized by a living statue holding a lamp of knowledge. In her autobiography, "I'll Cry Tomorrow" (1954), she describes being molested by the man who painted her as a statue. She attended the Professional Children's School in New York City with classmates Ruby Keeler and Milton Berle.