Justine Johnstone

Justine Olive Johnstone was born on January 31, 1895, and pursued a career that spanned Broadway performance, silent film acting, and medical research. She died on September 4, 1982, in Santa Monica, California, from congestive heart failure, and her remains are held at Chapel of the Pines Crematory.

Johnstone attended Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, where she was involved in the drama club, the senior play, the glee club, operetta, choir, and the basketball team. She also served as an editor of the school publication Gargoyle and worked briefly as a model during her time there. Her classmates, aware of her acting career, nicknamed her Ju-jo. She first appeared on Broadway between 1911 and 1914, then stepped away from performing to complete her studies at Emma Willard before returning to the stage.

Her Broadway career extended from 1914 to 1926. Upon her return to the stage, she became a featured performer for producers Charles Dillingham and Florenz Ziegfeld, appearing in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1915 and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1916. Her other Broadway credits included Stop! Look! Listen! in 1915, in which she played Mary Singer, and Betty in 1916, where she portrayed Chicquette. In 1917, producer Lee Shubert created the musical revue Over the Top for her; the production marked the Broadway debuts of Fred Astaire and his sister Adele Astaire. That same year she appeared in Oh, Boy as Polly Andrus. The revue Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 was among her subsequent credits, and she concluded her performing career with the play Hush Money in 1926, playing Kathleen Forrest, after which she retired from the stage.

Alongside her stage work, Johnstone appeared in a number of silent films between 1914 and 1925, including Nothing But Lies, The Plaything of Broadway, Sheltered Daughters, A Heart to Let, and Never the Twain Shall Meet, among others.

On September 13, 1919, Johnstone married film producer Walter Wanger. The couple divorced in 1938, and she retained the surname Wanger. Following the divorce, she adopted two sons.

When Wanger fell ill in 1927, his physician Samuel Hirschfeld encouraged Johnstone to enroll in science courses at Columbia University, where she initially studied plant research. Her work drew the attention of Harold T. Hyman, head of the science department at Columbia, and both Hyman and Hirschfeld brought her on to assist in their research. In 1929 she joined the staff of the College of Physicians and Surgeons as a research assistant in the pharmacology department. Working under her married name, Justine Wanger, she co-authored a paper with Hirschfeld and Hyman published in 1931 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which addressed the influence of delivery velocity on intravenous injections. The team's central contribution was the development of the drip technique, which slowed the rate of intravenous delivery and eliminated what was then called speed shock, forming the basis of the modern intravenous drip. The three researchers also conducted experiments that contributed to the cure for syphilis. Johnstone additionally co-authored two papers with a Dr. Blackberg, published in 1932 and 1933, addressing the organization of resuscitation measures and the condition of melanuria, respectively.

Johnstone and Wanger later relocated to Los Angeles, where she worked as a research assistant to physicians studying cancer and contributed to the development of the discipline of endocrinology. To support her research, she installed a laboratory in her Hollywood home.