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There is a patent, US2809614, assigned to Continental Motors (now owned by the Chinese government) that addressed stress issues with the rocker-arm (the term, rocker-lever, seemed a bit off, may have been a google translate thing) designs. They were looking at it for aviation use. Obviously, nothing came of it.
I think the rocker-arm designs may have made a more compact engine than the two-crankshaft designs -- or not. It may have had less friction than gear towers. I haven't read any comparisons.
There is a patent, US2134811, by H.D. Church that drives two sets of rocker-arms off of one crankshaft to two banks of cylinders. It was never produced, as far as I know.
R. Laraque describes improvements to his earlier rocker-arm designs for MAP in US2530884. The earliest patent I found for him was on Espacenet, FR812528 (A).
The Olds patent is US2099371A.
The oldest Sulzer patent I could locate can be found on Espacenet, GB449802 (A). This puts Laraque, Sulzer, Church and Olds putting patents out close to the same time ('34-'37), with the edge to Olds -- maybe. I am fairly certain there were rocker-arm designs that predate those four.
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