From late 1873 to early 1874, he worked as an actor, director, and secretary at Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada, where he found "more reckless women and desperadoes to the square foot…than anywhere else in the world". His developmental years as a supporting player in Virginia City colored his thoughts eventually helping him to conceive realistic stage settings. He said that while there, seeing "people die under such peculiar circumstances" made him "all the more particular in regard to the psychology of dying on the stage. I think I was one of the first to bring naturalness to bear in death scenes, and my varied Virginia City experiences did much to help me toward this. Later I was to go deeper into such studies." His recollections of that time were published in "Hearst's Magazine" in 1914. By March 1874, he was back at work in San Francisco, eventually managing Thomas Maguire's Baldwin Theater. When Maguire lost the theater in 1882, Belasco relocated to the East Coast bringing his practical western experiences with him. The West allowed him to develop his talents as not only a performer, but in progressive production design and execution.