Herb Sumner in 1933.
Herbert "Herb" Sumner (1879 - 1933) was an American camera man who was part of Carl Denham's journey to Skull Island in 1933.
Biography[]
Herb was born in Boston in 1879. He began working as camera man in 1902, filming the Wild West. He was drafted in the US Army and worked filming battles in the Western Front.
In 1919, he met Carl Denham, who he worked as his loyal cameraman until his death. In 1930 he lost his left leg when he was attacked by a sea lion in Nova Scotia.
In 1933, Herb was part of Denham's journey to Skull Island. He accompanies Carl and his film crew onto the island twice - once into the native's village (where they are captured and later rescued by Captain Englehorn) and again when several of the men set out to rescue Ann Darrow.
When the men pause for a quick break, he, Carl and Bruce Baxter go off a little way down the valley, and encounter a herd of "Brontosaurus" grazing. Carl began to film them. However, some "Utahraptors" arrived in a hunting pack and supposedly frightened the dinosaurs, causing them to stampede down the valley towards Baxter, Carl and Herb. Baxter quickly lost his nerve and ran away. However, despite the dangers, Herb stoically remained with Denham until the last possible minute, filming the creatures.
Soon they, along with the rest of the men, had to flee down the narrow valley away from the stampeding herd and the "Raptors" chasing them. Despite being plodding and slow-moving, Herb managed to successfully survive the stampede by running with the rest of the men, surprisingly managing to keep up and avoid being trampled.
The stampede supposedly ended after Baxter shot "the raptor" chasing him in a hail of bullets, and unintentionally struck one of the Brontosaurus' with several bullets, causing it to trip and cause the others to fall into a heap. The men were forced to climb up a steep embankment to escape. Herb was at the rear of the climbing men and struggled to climb, subsequently getting stuck against the rock face and calling for help from Carl.
Carl tried to help him by getting him to hold onto his end of the camera tripod and pull him up, but Herb realised it won't work and says "You have to leave me!", despite Denhams vow that he will not leave without Herb. Herb was subsequently dragged back down the slope by a "raptor", and was supposedly killed and eaten by the pack. Carl was visibly distressed by the loss of his loyal assistant. He told Preston, that he wanted to finish his film for Herb and donate the proceeds to his wife and children. However, Preston, remembering that Carl had said the same thing when Mike died, saw this as the final confirmation that Carl was only doing it for himself.