A couple of years ago, I remember seeing a video, I think an old newsreel, that had a bunch of recumbents, and I seem to remember from 1938 or so. Very interesting, but I can't find it now for the life of me.
However, one video I did run across while looking is this one:
If you'll notice, at 0:58 in the video is a bicycle being pedaled with both arms and legs (legs reverse pedaling). This is from 1933, and I doubt it was a new idea then- so the idea's been around a good long while.