[2] The family lived across the street from the Alhambra Theater so Forsyne would watch shows from the fire escape, she recalled in an article in 1953.
By age 14, Forsyne ran away to join a tab show called the Black Bostonians Coon Town 400.
She was in the cast of Darktown's Circus Day in 1903,[6] and by 1904 had a solo act in The Southerners, the first interracial musical show, headed by Will Marion Cook.
In addition to age, she believed her darker skintone was a barrier to employment, even in all-black shows, what she called "Black prejudice.
"[10][11] From 1920 to 1922, Forsyne worked as a personal maid, both onstage and off stage to vaudeville performer, Sophie Tucker.
On returning to New York, Forsyne auditioned but was not hired at Harlem nightclubs such as the Cotton Club, Connie’s Inn, and the Nest because of their preference for light-skinned chorus girls.
[11] In 1951, Forsyne assisted Ruthanna Boris in the choreography of the New York City Ballet’s "Cakewalk," by George Balanchine.
[15][16] Forsyne had three husbands: James Frank Dougherty, Usher Henry Watts and Arthur Belton Hubbard.
[18] Lori Harrison-Kahan, The White Negress: Literature, Minstrelsy, and the Black-Jewish Imaginary (Rutgers University Press 2011): 35.