Alice Lee Roosevelt, the eldest of President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt's children and his only child with his first wife, was introduced to society at her debutante ball that was held at the White House in 1902. As a teenager, Alice was known to smoke cigarettes, consume alcohol, gamble, ride in fast cars with boys, and carry a snake named Emily Spinach in her bag.

Roosevelt once said, "I can do one of two things. I can be president of the United States or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both." Alice did many controversial things throughout her rebellious years, and just before the Roosevelt family left the White House, she reportedly buried a voodoo doll of incoming President William Howard Taft’s wife on the front lawn of the White House.

When the voodoo doll was discovered, Alice was banned from visiting the White House. A few years after the Taft ban, Alice was banned from the White House once again by Woodrow Wilson, who served as the president from 1913 to 1921, for calling him a "whey-blooded schoolmaster," as well as making lewd jokes about him.